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WHITE HEAD. 

From a Paiutiiig by II. B. Brown. 

" The heavens are all blue, and the billow's bright verge 
Is frothily laved by a -whispering surge, 
That heaves incessant, a tranquil dirge. 
To lull the i^ale forms that sleep below ; 
Forms that rock as the waters flow." — John Neal. 








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BY Wf|-Ji.MipMT,A.^ 




I y\ >NojEGM op QULL&D pLowER.3 1 BRl/^Q . 

I With aiothi^g.iop a\y onx^j eycEpr the- ^tk'^g p 

T*HAT BIAIDS/^HE:A\ /kno/mtaig/me. 










New York : American Photo-Engbaving Co., 13 &"15 Vandewater street. 




Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year iS36, by 

WILLIAM M. SARGENT, A. M., 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D. C. 






TO ALL PORTLANDERS, 

AT HOME OR ABROAD, 

THIS LITTLE BOOK IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, 

AT THIS 

CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY 

OF THEIR CITY, 

EMBODYING, AS IT DOES. IN A MODEST WAY. 

ONE CHAPTER 

OF ITS MUNICIPAL HISTORY. 



TJERRA DE ESTEYM^ GOMEZ 




The iatujest Chart locating Cdshing's Island: by D. Ribero, 

AD. 1529. 



Insulam amoenam, si quceritis, circumspice. 



"Next he found the land faire, and the whole coast bold to fall with, 
and then, a safe harbour for shipps to ride in, which hath besides, with- 
out the river, in the channell and soundes about the Island, adjoyning to 
the mouth thereof, so desired a road, as yt is capable of an infinite 
nomber of shippes." — Wm. Sfrachey. 



i 



I. 
HlSreRiCAL gKETCH 




HE discovery of America followed close upon the age of chivalry 
and knight-errantry, and the hope of profitable expeditions and 
remunerative employment came with alluring, but, as it proved, 
delusive force to many a scion of hereditary houses, so lately 
depleted of their wealth by the crusading infatuation of the 
fathers. Strachey records as a principal reason for the abandon- 
ment of the Popham settlement of 1607 at the mouth of the Kennebeck 
that there were ' ' noe mynes discovered, nor hope thereof, being the may ne 
intended benefit expected to uphold the charge of this plantation." It was 
through the wonderful tales of the Indians who had been kidnapped by 
Waymouth and carried to England, that Gorges was first led to become 
interested in expeditions to this country, for * ' some of these Indians had 
deceived Sir Ferdinando Gorges by making him believe they knew where 
Gold was to be found in abundance ; and he obtained a promise from 
Epenow to discover it to him. Accordingly Sir Ferdinando sent over 
Captain Hobson, in 1614, very confident he would make a good voyage and 
obtain very important information about the riches of the country ; but he 
was doomed to be sadly disappointed."^ 

" Quid non mortalia cogis, 
Auri sacra fames " ! 

but " this accident must be acknowledged the means under God of putting 
on foot and giving life to all our plantations,"^ for, although disappointed in 
their expectation of immediate and immense returns from mineral wealth, 
these first adventurers were led to count with more reasonable assurance 
upon pecuniar}^ gratification from the development of the other lavish 

1 Drake's "Old Indian Chronicle." -Gorges' "Brief Narration." 



10 Historical Sketch of Cushing's Island. 

productions of the ferra nova, by the favorable reports and successful 
voyages of Captain John Smith ; and Gorges and Sir Francis Popham 
continued to receive some little jjrofit from commercial ventur(;s, and sent 
out. year after year, vessels to fish along the coast and to trade v/ith the 
Indians for valuable furs. 

It was some time after the failure of the Popham attempt at a settlement, 
before the discouraging impression disseminated by the returning and 
scattered remnants of that first colony, who colored their tales with 
exaggerated descriptions of the hardships of the winter life upon the coast, 
and peopled the region about the Sagadahock with " cannibals with teeth 
three inches in length," could be overthrown, and more substantial 
adventurers than the ever ready and often reckless fishermen and sailors, 
be induced to make a trial of life under such novel conditions. 

But the outcome of these small beginnings was the more ambitious con- 
ception of the foundation of a new empire in the distant West ; for Gorges 
" held firmly to the grand thought and purpose of his life when others" 
hearts were failing them, and to keep up his own connection with this 
intractable new world, when nothing else would do, he hired people to live 
here.'" 

The difficulties experienced by the original patentees in forwarding set- 
tlements, doubtless led to larger liberality in the way of inducements held 
out to others to emulate their example, or to inaugurate new efforts ; and 
hence we find, along our coast, such a number of smaller grants, so often 
conflicting and irreconcilable in terms and extent — the despair of accurate 
students, a snare to incipient historians and would-be geographers — made 
by the New England Company and its successor, the Council of Plymouth, 
corporations of West England nobility and gentry, which were created by 
charters from King James, and which in 1606 and 1620 became the suc- 
cessive owners of an immense domain of territory that included within its 
limits our beautiful Island. 

Among the staunchest adherents of the house and fortunes of Gorges 
was Captain Christopher Levett, a gentleman of good family who had 
already filled the position of " his Majesty's Woodward of Somersetshire," 
and who was appointed " one of the Council of New England" under the, 
futile attempt that was made to establish a general government. He says 
of himself that he had been "an ancient traveller by sea." 

After the failure of the general government experiment, many of the 
proprietors abandoned their interests and sold out their shares. Discour- 

' Chaiuberlaiu. 



Historical Sketch of Ciishiiig's Island. 11 

aged by the opposition that was developed both before and in ParHament. 
the original holders had become very much reduced in numbers and ev^en 
more so in prestige. Gorges had now become the most influential member, 
as he had been long the directing spirit among those that remained. 
August 10, 16:^-2, Gorges, with his partner. Captain John Mason, obtained a 
Patent from the Council of Plymouth of all the country between the Merri- 
mac and Kennebeck to the farthest head of said rivers and sixty miles 
inland, 2vith all the Islands and islets within five leagues of the shore. 
'• which they intend to call the Province of Maine." 

As a matter of inducement to his faithful friend and follower and as a 
reward for his past services to him and his family, Gorges must have 
entered into a private arrangement to permit Levett to locate within the 
limits of his new acquired territory, should he there tind such a site as 
would prove more satisfactory than in other unoccupied parts of New Eng- 
land. For as will be developed further on. Captain Levett ranged well 
along the coast before he selected our Island as his home and the center of 
the grant of six thousand acres of land which was made to him, as a prin- 
cipal patentee, by the Council, May 5, 1623.' 

In no other way can a satisfactory reason be assigned for what would 
have otherwise been an infraction, in so far, upon Gorges' prior Patent of 
1623. 

It will be observed that in the scanty minute that has been preserved 
to us no geographical confines are specified, although another account says 
it was ** to be located by Levett. athis own pleasure, upon the vacant terri- 
tory of New England.'' 

Setting sail from England in the spring of 1623, Captain Levett arrived 
first at the Isles of Shoals ; and after spending some months there and at 
the plantation of David Thompson upon the New Hampshire mainland, he 
set out in earnest for the purpose of selecting a favorable site for his pro- 
jected plantation, which it appears by this further minute of the Council 
he intended to develop into a metropolis : 

•' The King judges well of the undertaking in New England, and more 
particularly of a design of Chris! Levett, one of the Council for set- 
tling that plantation, to build a city there and call it York. — Levett wishes 
50 men to join with him in the adventure, to carry over 50 others and to 
build a fort for their preservation and security of the plantation. "- 

Captain Christopher Levett was the means, under Providence, of effect- 
ing the first European settlement within the territorial limits of Portland. 

1 Sainsbury's Calendar of State Papers. Vol. I, p. 46. - Sainsbury's Calendar. 



12 



Historical Sketch of Cushing's Island. 



ten years before Cleeves and Tucker settled on the Neck, taking possession 
of our Island in August, 1633, by virtue of his Patent, and with the free con- 
sent of the aboriginal owners of the soil, a confirmatory grant having been 
first obtained from Cogawesco's Queen. The brief description printed by 
old William Strachey, of this loveliest indentation of our coast, that holds 




Caps Levett ai /\nchor in White-Head Cove Aug. I623. 



as good to-day as when penned, mutatis mutandis, may prove as attrac- 
tive to some new readers as it, doubtless, did to Captain Levett, whose 
experienced judgment in selecting it in preference to all other sites shows 
that the pen-picture of its enchanting beauties was not over-colored : 

"28 Aug. [1607] Capt. Raleigh Gilbert departed in the shallop upon 
a discovery to the Westward and sayled all the daye by many gallant 
islands. The wynd at night comyng contrary, they came to anchor that 
night under a headland, by the Indians called Semiamis'; the land exceed- 
ing good and fertile, as appeared by the trees growing thereon being 
goodly and great, most oake and walnutt,with spacious passages betweene, 

1 Cape Elizabeth :— so the anchorage was in Portland Sound, just west of our Island. 



Historical Sketch of Cushing's Island. 



13 



and noe rubbish under, and a place most fitt to fortifye on, being by nat- 
ure fortifyed on two sides, with a spring of water under yt. 

Aug. 30. — They returned homeward before the wynd, say ling by many 
goodly and gallant islands ; for betwixt the said headland, Semiamis, and 
the river of Sagadahock is a very great bay, in the which there lyeth soe 
many islands and so thicke and neere togither, that can hardly be discerned 
the nomber, yet may any shipp passe betwixt, the greatest parte of them 
having seldome lesse water than eight or ten fathome about them. These 
islands are all overgrowne with woods, as oak, walnutt, pine, spruse trees, 
hasell nuts, sarsaparilla and hurts^ in abundance. "- 




ON THE ROAD TO WHITE HEAD. 

" Oiir pleasant labor to reform 
Yon flowerj^ arbors, yonder alleys green, 
Our walk at noon, with branches overgrown, 
That mock our scant mauiiriug, and reqiiire 
More hands than ours to lo^j their wanton growth. 
Those blossoms also, and those dropping gums, 
That lie bestrewn, unsightly and uusmooth, 
Ask riddance, if we mean to tread with ease." — Milton. 



1 Whortleberries. 



3 Maine Hist. Coll. III.. 301. 



14 Historical Sketch of Cushing's Island . 

Captain Levett shall now proceed in his own language : " And now in 
its place I come to Quack, which I have named York. At this place there 
fished divers ships of WaymoutlV this year [in-2o]. It lieth about two 
leagues to the east of Cape Elizabeth. It is a bay or sound betwixt the 
main and certain islands which lieth in the sea about one English mile and 
half. 

There are four islands^ which makes one good harbor : there is very 
good fishing, much fowl, and the main as good ground as any can desire. 
There I found one river^ wherein the savages say there is much salmon 
and other good fish. In this bay there hath been taken this year four 
sturgeons by fishermen who drive only for herrings, so that likely there 
may be good store taken if there were men fit for that purpose. This river 
I made bold to call by my own name, Levett's River, being the first that 
discovered it. How far this river is navigable I cannot tell : I have been 
but six miles up it, but on both sides is goodly ground. In the same bay I 
found another river,* up which I went about three miles, and found a great 
fall of water, much bigger than the fall at London bridge at low water : 
further a boat cannot go, but above the fall the river runs smooth again. 

Just at this fall of water the Sagamore or king of that place hath a 
house, where I was one day when there were two Sagamores more, their 
wives and children, in all about fifty, and we were but seven. They bid 
me welcome and gave me such victuals as they had, and I gave them 
tobacco and aqua- vita?. After I had spent a little time with them I departed 
and gave them a small shot, and they gave me another. And the great 
Sagamore of the East country whom the rest do acknowledge to be chief 
amongst them, he gave unto me a beaver's skin whieh I thankfully 
received, and so in great love we parted. On both sides this river there is 
goodly ground. 

From this harbor to Sagadahock, which is about eight or nine leagues, 
is all broken islands in the sea, which makes many excellent good harbors, 
where a thousand sail of ships may ride in safety : the sound going up 
within the islands to the cape of Sagadahock. 

In the way between York and Sagadahock lieth Cascoe, a good harbor, 
good fishing, good ground and much fowl. And I am persuaded that from 
Cape Elizabeth to Sagadahock, which is above thirty leagues to follow the 
main, is all exceedingly commodious for plantations : and that there may 
be twenty good towns well seated, to take the benefit both of the sea and 
fresh rivers." 

^ The town, not the captain, of that name is iuteuded. 

2 Cushing's, House, Peak's aud Diamond. ^ Fore River. ^ Presumpscot Ri\er. 



Historical Sketch of Cushing's Island. 15 

Journeying to the Eastward, Captain Levett fell in with several Saga- 
mores, who besides entertaining him royally, affectionately termed him 
■' cousin," and pressed gifts of beaver coats and skins upon him. 

' ' When ready to depart I was asked where I meant to settle my planta- 
tion. I replied I intended to go further to the East before I could resolve 
as I had seen many suitable places West. They said there was no good 
places remaining unoccupied, as Pemaquid, Monhegan and Cape Nawagan 
had been granted to other Englishmen ; and besides, as the best time for 
fishing was then drawing on apace, and Cogawesco promised me that if I 
would sit down at either Casco or Quack I should be very welcome, and that 
he and his wife would go along with me in my boat to see them, which 
courtesy I had no reason to refuse, because I had set up my resolution 
before to settle my plantation at Quack, which I named York, and was 
glad of this opportunity that I had obtained the consent of them, who as I 
conceive hath a natural right of inheritance, as they are the sons of Noah, 
and therefore do think it fit to carry things very fairly without compul- 
sion (if it be possible) for avoiding of treachery. 

The next day the wind came fair and I sailed to Quack, or York, with 
the king, queen and prince, bow and arrows, dog and kettle in my boat, his 
noble attendance rowing by us in their canoes. 

When we came to York the masters of the ships came to bid me 
welcome, and asked what savages those were. I told them and I thanked 
them ; they used them kindly and gave them meat, drink and tobacco. 
The woman or reputed queen asked me if those men were my friends. I 
told her they were ; then she drank to them, and told them they were 
welcome to her country, and so should all my friends be at any time; she 
drank also to her husband, and bid him welcome to her country too; for 
you must understand that her father was the Sagamore of this place, and 
left it to her at his death, having no more children. 

And thus after many dangers, much labor and great charge I have 
obtained a place of habitation in New England, where I have built a house 
and fortified it in a reasonable good fashion, strong enough against such 
enemies as are those savage people. " 

In his description of his intercourse with these kind-hearted though 
untutored children of nature, Captain Levett makes repeated allusions to 
the Island location of his home, that could not have been disregarded had it 
not been for the disposition in certain quarters to make out a claim to the 
honor of his occupancy in favor of the Neck. This was so evidently not 
the case, that it is a labor of supererogation to rehearse all the evidence, so 
that a few bits will have to suffice. The Neck was always called Machi- 



16 



Historical Sketch of Cushing^s Island. 




A BIT OF WAVE SCENERY. 

From a Painting by H. B. Brown. 

" I look forth 
Over the boundless blue, where joyously 
The bright crests of innumerable waves 
Glance to the sun at once, as when the hands 
Of a great multitude are upward flung 
In acclamation." — Beyant. 



gonne by the natives, and it was granted by that name by Sir Ferdinando 
Gorges to Cleeves and Tucker; Cleeves in his declaration against Winter 
in 1040, expressly declared that when he took possession of it first " these 
seven years and upwards" it "was in no man's possession or occupation, 
and therefore the plaintiff seized on it as his own proper inheritance by 
virtue of a royal proclamation of our late sovereign Lord King James," etc 
Kow Cleeves was at this very time in full and undisputed possession of our 
Island by virtue of the transfer of Levett's old patent through mesne con- 
veyances to himself, as will be shown by citations further on, and if he 
could have strengthened his title by any claim of occupancy by or under 
Levett, of the Neck, he would gladly have availed himself of all the 
advantage that would have accrued by such occupation, the priority of 
which would have antedated that of his adversaries Trelawny and Winter 
by at least ten years. Again, the most valuable "Brief e Discription of New 
England "' written by Samuel Mavericke (1657), and recently exhumed in 
England, closes the argument thus convincingly: "Betweene Sagadahocke 

1 N. E. Hist. & Gen. Register, XXXIX, 34. 



Historical Sketch of Cushing's Island. 17 

and Cape Elizabeth lying about 7 Leagues asunder is Casco Bay; about 
the year 1632 there was a Patent granted to one Capt. Christopher 
Lewett for 6,000 acres of land which he tooke up in this Bay neare Cape 
Elizabeth, and built a good House and fortified well on an Island lyeing 
before Casco River; this he sold and his Inter rest in the Patent to Mr. 
Ceeley, Mr. Jope and Company of Plimouth." / 

Surely that is explicit enough ; it was not at Machigonne ; not on Cape 
Elizabeth, but " neare" it ; not at Casco — all of which were the mainland, 
and which three localities embraced all the mainland within a circuit of 
nearly half the "thirty leagues" Levett speaks of — that our Captain Levett 
made his home and built his "good House," but at his beloved " Quack," 
the Indian name for Portland Sound and that arm of the bay between the 
group of four islands and the main, of which ours would be the one most 
likely to be designated by Mavericke as " lyeing before Casco River," i. e., 
at its mouth. 

The accurate tracing of the title through Cleeves and his heirs foT three 
generations, a task never before undertaken, illustrates the position taken, 
by the way our Island was derived from Levett, and the fact that its posses- 
sion and tenure was never called in question by either Gorges, Rigby, 
Winter or Jordan, or any other of Cleeves' numerous contestants, although 
every other acre he ever held was, at some time in the course of his check- 
ered career, disputed. These facts, taken collectively, fortify and render 
unassailable the statement that our Island title exhibits an antiquity and 
continuity of occupation that cannot be equaled in both respects by any 
spot around us. 

To resume, after this digression, Levett speaks of the natives " coming 
presently over " to visit him : again, "they presently went over the harbor 
[from his house] to this roguish captain's place on the main." 

' ' But the wiuds will blow ; 
A.nd the ship wiU go 
And loving hearts must jiart," 

and Levett began to be uneasy about the wife and family he had left 
behind him, and commenced his preparations for his return. He goes on : — 
' ' A little before my departure there came these Sagamores to see me : 
Sadamoyt, the great Sagamore of the East country, Manawormet, Oppar- 
unwet, Skedraguscett,^ Cogawesco, Somerset, Conway and others. They 
asked me why I would be gone out of their country ? I was glad to tell 

1 A creek that still bears his name emjjties into the Presiimpscot. 



1'*^ Historical Sketch of Cushing's Island. 

them my wife would not come thither except I did fetch her ; they bid the 
dogs take her [or something equivalent], (a phrase they have learned and 
do use when they do curse), and wished me to beat her. I told them no, 
for then our God would be angry. Then they run out upon her in evil 
terms, and wished me to let her alone and take another ; I told them our 
Go4 would be more angry for that. Again they bid me beat her, repeating 
it often, and very angerly, but I answered no, that was not the English 
fashion, and besides she was a good wife and I had children by her, and I 
loved her well ; so I satisfied them. Then they told me that I and my wife 
and children, with all my friends, should be heartily welcome into that 
country at any time, yea a hundredth thousand times, yea moucMcke, 
moiichicke, which is a word of weight. 

And Somerset told that his son (who was born whilst I was in the 
country, and whom he would needs have to name) and mine should be 
brothers, and that there should be mouchicke legamatch (that is friendship) 
betwixt them until Tanto carried them into his wigwam (that is until they 
died). 

Then they must know of me how long I would be wanting. I told them 
so many months, at which they seemed to be well pleased, but wished me 
to take heed I proved not checkaske (that is a liar) in that. They asked 
me what I would do with my house ; I told them I would leave ten of my 
men there until I came again, and that they should kill all the Tarrentens^ 
they should see (being enemies to them) and with whom the English have 
no commerce. At which they rejoiced exceedingly, and then agreed 
amongst themselves that when the time should be expired which I spoke of 
for my return, every one at the place where he lived would look to the sea, 
and when they did see a ship they would send to all the Sagamores in the 
country and tell them that poor Levett was come again. "^ 

The ruins of an ancient cellar and what may have been rude earth- 
works are still traceable upon the northern point of the Island, and point 
out the exact location of Captain Levett's "good House" and his fortifica- 
tion ; and the place has long been locally known as " Cellar Point." Built 
as they were of timbers from the surrounding forest, neither the logs of 
the house nor the palisades of the fort have surived the gnawing tooth of 
Time, but have long since crumbled into dust ; but the bits of pottery, the 
occasional trace of iron implements and the frequent musket flints that 
have rewarded the intermittent excavatings of enthusiastic relic-hunters, 

1 A tribe of Eastern Indians who were very hostile to our Abenakis. 
•^ Mame Hist. Coll., IL 84 & foil. 



H Q 



& H 



1=: o 



B 2. 



n> 

i-i i-h 

g I 

fD O 

tt era 




Historical Sketch of Cushing's Island. 21 

within and around the still clearly defined cellar-hole, evidence an occupa- 
tion by Europeans long before the time when our exact records begin. 

Here for some seasons a part of the ten men left behind by Captain 
Levett patiently awaited his coming again. Of this faithful band, the 
names of but three have been handed down to us in the "Trelawny 
Papers." They were Thomas Alger, from Newton Ferrers ; Edmond 
Baker and Nicholas Rouse, from Wembery. Discouraged by the non- 
appearance of their master, they scattered amongst their acquaintances in 
the neighboring plantations ; Alger joining his relatives of that name at 
Black Point. Baker and Rouse going to the Old Colony. It was probably 
the latter's son or grandson who, in 1G98, became the fifth owner of the 
Island, doubtless induced to the acquisition of it by his ancestor's descrip- 
tion of its fertility and rare natural attractions. 

Captain Levett sailed for England in the fall of 1623, and learning on 
his arrival that the scheme of the Grand Council of Plymouth to establish 
a general civil and religious government over New England had been 
reluctantly abandoned, and their Governor, Robert Gorges, recalled, he 
gave over his design of returning to Quack, for several years, and his 
fortified habitation on our Island was gradually deserted by the garrison 
he left in it. 

After the death of Governor Robert Gorges in 1624, Captain Levett 
enlisted in the Royal Navy, where he seems to have served with distinction 
for several years. 

In 1G28, it was believed, now that peace was restored to England, the 
time was auspicious for a renewal of the Council's design to establish Epis- 
copacy in New England. 

Captain Levett threw up his commission in the navy, and in that year 
was appointed by Royal Commission, Governor of New England ; and he 
was authorized by his Majesty's letters to raise large contributions and 
benevolences in the County and City of York, England, for the purpose of 
founding a capital and episcopal seat to be named York upon the site of his 
newly acquired possessions.^ One can hardly conjecture what might have 
been the result of the Captain's efforts, both in a political and religious 
point of view, had he not been removed by death, before he had gathered 
the fruits of his ambitious zeal. "- It must ever be matter of the prof oundest 
regret that he never more visited our coast to perfect his settlement upon 
our Island, as his good judgment, his conciliatory disposition towards the 
natives and the good will he had established with them would have proved 

1 Sainsbury's Calendar of State Papers. ^ Jdimess. 



22 Historical Sketch of Cushing^s Island. 

not only of inestimable value to the colonists, but his energy, the confi- 
dence reposed in him by those in power at home and the material advances 
he had secured would have so furthered the incipient plantation that she 
might have "become the metropolis of all that region round about long 
before Boston was settled.'" 

Almost all of the early writers have indulged in conjectures concerning 
the origin of the Aborigines of America, Some would derive them from 
a migatory stock that found its way by successive wanderings through Ice- 
land and Greenland to our shores ; others advance a route by way of Asia 
and Alaska ; while yet a remaining class make them the descendants of a 
people inhabiting the fabled mother-land, long lost Atlantis. 

Whether we accept our Captain Levett's theory, which agreed, in sub- 
stance, with General Gookin's conclusion, that the Indians " were Adam's 
Posterity,'" or adopt Governor Sullivan's independent creation, "that the 
Indians were placed on this continent by the Author of their nature. It 
was his prerogative to raise different grades of rational animals according 
to his own pleasure, and to place them where his wisdom directed it to be 
done",' it is not without interest that we consider their legendary traditions 
of their own origin : " Others say that there were two young Squaws or 
Women, being at first either swimming or wading in the Water, the Froth 
or Foam of the Water touched their Bodies, from whence they became 
with Child ; and one of them brought forth a Male and the other a Female 
Child ; and then the two Women died and left the Earth, So their Son 
and Daughter were their first Progenitors."* 

The natives of this part of Maine were of the Abenaki branch of the 
Great Algonquin family ; they had held possession of our Island from 
a period of such remote antiquity that our titular occupation seems but a 
span in comparison. The absence of anything like records amongst them ; 
the irreconcilability of such traditions as survive ; the puritanical prejudice 
that regarded as unworthy any investigation of a race that were intol- 
erantly regarded as mere bloodthirsty, relentless monsters, hopelessly 
degraded and incapable of improvement, prevent anything in the nature 
of a satisfactory history of our aboriginal dwellers ; but here and there, in 
some half -forgotten tome, descriptions of them are preserved that are 
worthy of repetition : 

"First of their Stature, most of them being betweene five or six foote 
high, straight bodied, strongly composed, smooth skinned, merry counten- 
anced, of complexion something more swarthy than Spaniards, black hair'd, 

1 This was actually the case of Pemaquid. - Drake's "Old Indian Chronicle " 

^ " Land Titles," p. 24. * Drake's "Old Indian Chronicle." 



Historical Sketch of Gushing'' s Island. 



T^ 



high foreheaded, black ey'd, out nosed, broad shouldered, brawny armed, 
long and slender handed, out breasted, small wasted, lanke bellied, well 
thighed, flat kneed, handsome growne leggs and small feete. In a word, 
take them when the blood briskes in their veines, when the flesh is on their 
backs, and marrow in their bones, when they frolick in their antique 
deportments and Indian postures ; and they are more amiable to behold 
(though onely in Adam's livery) than many a compounded phantasticke in 
the newest fashion^"- 

There is evidence to show that our Indians were an original people in 
name, manners and language. They called themselves "men"; but the 
name by which they were known to other tribes, " Abenakis", signifies 
" our ancestors of the East." Forty tribes to the Westward called them 
"our grandfathers", and acknowledged descent from a common origin. 




From a Painting by H. B. Brown. 

" O, gie me a sough o' the auld saut sea, 
A scent o' his brine again." — Hew Ainslie. 



Their civilization was rude and incomplete, yet in their customs, arts, 
religion and language they evidenced an antiquity and an age of flourishing 
development to which the myths and legends still rehearsed as dimly 
remembered traditions by their scattered and degenerate descendants all 
point as to their golden age. They were cruel in war, treacherous at times, 



1 The " dude " of that day. 



^ Wood's " New England Prospect." 



24 Historical Sketch of CusJiiny's Island. 

but possessed of many manly qualities, of hospitality, gratitude, good faith, 
strong friendship, and sobriety, until the advent of the white man with his 
indulgences of a higher cultivation taught them extravagance and vice. 
Their love of liberty and heroism of endurance made them dreaded foes or 
welcome allies.^ 

Resuming, now, the derivation of the title of our Island: We have traced 
it in the preceding pages from the King of England, the fountain-head of 
all original titles, through his Patent to the Council of Plymouth into 
Captain Christopher Levett, and witnessed the confirmation or acquies- 
cence of the aboriginal owners of the soil to his location thereof. Then we 
have read Mavericke's testimony that Captain Levett •• sold to Mr. Ceeley, 
Mr. Jope and Company of Plimouth.'' Next we find it transferred by a 
man named Wright, probably one of the ''Company", to George Cleeves^ 
about the time he was ousted by Trelawny's agent from his first 
attempted settlement at Spur wink, when he was casting about for 
unoccupied territory to settle upon, and certainly before he had obtained a 
grant from Sir Ferdinando Gorges, of the Neck. For, Robert Trelawny 
in 1637 writes to Gorges complaining that George Cleeves had intruded 
upon the lands granted to him by Patent (Dec. 1, 1631), and adds: "besides 
he goes about Vnder a dead & outworne title to Out mee of the beste parte 
of my pattent. being that on which he is seated & a great part there about, 
saying it was formerly granted to one Leuite & by him to one Wright, & 
not without Some contemptuouse words of you & [mee] as I am informed. 
W^hereas in deed Leiute neuer tooke that as parte of his pattent, but an 
Hand in that [baye of] Cascoe."~ 

Whatever were the varying fortunes of Cleeves with respect to his titles 
upon the mainland, and he was involved in endless litigation, his title to 
our Island under these mesne conveyances from Levett, as before asserted, 
was never impugned. In fact the deed to him and his partner Tucker 
of the Neck and Hog Island (27th Jan'y^. 1636), from Gorges, contains 
language that is by implication strong recognition of his prior title to our 
Island under Levett ; it recites, " as an Island adjacent to the sd prem- 
ises and noiv in the tenure & occupation of the said Cleeves & Tucker 
\l}il the name of Hogg Island] ivhich said premises iviththe appurtenances 
are not already poses' t or past to any other P'son soever. '^ 

Cleeves never conveyed away our Island, and it passed with his only 
daughter Elizabeth to Michael Mitton. 

Mitton was a jovial soul, fond of his cups, his gun, the soul of festive 

^ For much of the substance of the above I am indebted to the labors of Mr. E. H. Elwell. 
• Trelawny Papers, p. 102. 



Historical Sketch of Cushing's Island. 



25 



gatherings, too attractive by half to the maidens as poor Mary Martin 
bitterly experienced, who lived easily and lavishly with that selfish disre- 
gard of others' rights and prejudices characteristic of the 

" . . fine old English gentleman, 
One of the real old stock." 

He it was who told John Josselyn " of a Triton or Mereman which he saw 
in Casco Bay : the gentleman was a great Fouler, and used to goe out with 
a small Boat or Canow, and fetching a compass about a small Island^ 
(there being many small Islands in the Bay) for the advantage of a shot, 
was encountered with a Triton, who laying his hands upon the side of the 
Canow, had one of them chopt off with a hatchet by Mr. Mittin, which was 
in all respects like the hand of a man, the Triton presently sunk dying the 
water with his purple blood and was no more seen."- 




VIEW FROM THE OCEAN SIDE. 

Ram Island in the distance 

" To sit on rocks, to muse o'er flood and fell, 
To slowly trace the forest's shady scene, 
Whei'e things that own not man's dominion dwell. 
And mortal foot hath ne'er or rarely been ; 
This is not solitude ; 'tis but to hold 
Converse with Nature's charms, and view her stores imrolled." — Bybon. 



1 Our Island, which was then a family possession. 



- Josselyn's Voyages. 



26 Historical Sketch of Cushing's Island. 

The Island passed next into the possession of James Andrews/ as the 
dowry of his wife, Sarah, one of the daughters of Michael Mitton. He held 
it from 1(J(J7 to 1G98. 

During Andrews' ownership, our Island underwent three changes in 
nomenclature : First it was called Portland Island ; then Andrews Island ; 
and finally, from the circumstance narrated below, it was known as Fort 
Island. It was during his proprietorship of our Island that the old house 
and fortification which were built by Captain Levett and which it seems 
from James Ross' deposition Andrews had used as a garrison-house, were 
destroyed.' It happened in this way : The Indians of Maine had remained 
quiescent, though strongly sympathizing with their kindred in the griev- 
ances that brought on King Phihp's war. But in the summer of 1G75 an 
attempt was made by order of the Massachusetts authorities to disarm the 
Indians on the Kennebeck, an ill-advised precautionary measure that precip- 
itated the outbreak of hostilities. In the conflict that ensued from the first 
of August to the end of November, lfJ75, it is estimated that about fifty 
English and over ninety Indian lives were sacrificed. A winter expedition- 
ary campaign having broken down, a fitful truce that had but a short dura- 
tion was concluded. At the outbreak of the war there were over forty 

^ James Andeews, born at Saco, soon after the immigration of his parents to that place, was the 
sou of Samuel Andrews, who, aged 37, with his wife, Jane, aged 30, his daughters, Jane, aged 3, who 
afterwards married George Felt, and Elizabeth, aged 2, who later married Francis Neale. embarked in 
the ship "Increase, "of London, 14 April, 1685, and were from the vicinity of Lombard street in that 
city, and were members of the Established Church, bringing their certificutes of conformity. He 
died the second year after his arrival, and his widow married (probably as his second wife) 
Arthur Mackworth, who had been dwelling upon Falmouth Foreside, just across Martin's Point 
bridge, before the advent of Cleeves and Tucker to the Neck. 

James, who removed with his mother, upon her second marriage, to Falmouth, married Sarah, 
daughter of Michael Mitton and granddaughter of George Cleeves. He had by her, Ehsha, who 
was a lieutenant as early as 1G89, under Church in his campaign against the Eastern Indians, and 
probably James and Joshua who both died before their father. He abandoned Falmouth in the 
first war and died at Boston, 170i, leaving a widow, Margaret, whose surname is not known, the sou 
Elisha, and three daughters : Rebecca, wife of Jonathan Adams, of Boston ; Dorcas, wife of Ebene- 
zer Davenport, of Dorchester; and Jane, wife of Robert Davis, who had perhaps had a former 
husband. See Savage, Willis, Brake and original York Co. Records. 

2 " The deposition of James Ross aged about seventy years who deposeth & saith that he lived in 
Falmouth in Casco Bay the greatest part of his time from his minority till he was taken by the 
Indians in the Fort with Captain Davis, and he very well knew the Island opposite Perpudock 
called Andross his Island & he never heard that any pei-sou claimed it but Mr. James Andross in 
that Day & Time. Mr. Andross had a Garrisoned House on the Island and lived there as he was 
informed as his own proper estate & he s'^ Ross lived sometime there in s'* Mr. Andross's House or 
Garrison with his uncle Skilling. 

Dated, Salem Sept. 23: n?i\:'—Tork Reg. 



Historical Sketch of Cushing's Island. 27 

families in Falmouth, nearly all of which were plunged into mourning by 
the loss during the hostilities, of members and relatives; some being cut off 
to the last member. 

The war broke out in the summer of 1676 on a more extended scale. 
All of our tribes engaged in it upon various pretexts, the real cause, how- 
ever, being not so much wrongs done themselves as the influence of the 
disaffected Narragansett Indians, who, smarting under the loss of their 
property, had retreated eastward and fomented a spirit of hostility among 
the Eastern tribes. 

On the 0th of August some of the neighboring Indians had killed one of 
Anthony Brackett's cows at his large farm in Back Cove, and Simon, their 
chief, offered to bring the offenders to him for punishment, which he 
pretended to do early on the morning of the 11th ; but the Indians whom he 
brought were a party of his own confederates, who immediately entered 
Brackett's house and took all the guns they could find, giving Brackett the 
choice either of serving them or being instantly killed. He chose the 
former alternative. The Indians then bound him, his wife and negro 
servant, and carried away their five children. Nathaniel Mitton, only 
brother of Ann, Mr. Brackett's wife, and of our Mrs. Andrews, made some 
resistance, and was killed on the spot. 

From Brackett's, the Indians proceeded round the Cove to the Presump- 
scot River, where they killed Robert Corbin, Humphrey Durham and 
Benjamin Atwell, who were engaged in making hay on Corbin's farm. 
Corbin's wife, with the wife of one of the others, and children of the third, 
who, being in one of the neighboring houses and hearing the alarm, had 
escaped in a canoe, were overtaken and captured ; as was also James Ross, 
the constable of the town, with his wife and children. The Indians 
proceeded to other houses in the vicinity, where they killed some of the 
inhabitants and made captives of others. The alarm was immediately 
communicated to the other parts of the town by Richard Pike, who, with 
another man, was in a boat on the river a little above Corbin's house when 
they heard the report of the guns ; they immediately turned back and saw 
the Atwell boy running towards the river in great haste, and a volley of 
shot was fired which passed over their heads. 

Simon hailed them to come on shore, but they hurried down the river 
and warned the people to escape to the garrison house, and such as could 
not escape to fire upon the Indians who were coming against them. Some 
of the Indians passed over to the Neck, where they shot John Munjoy and 
Isaac Wakely. 

Three men going to the harvest field of Anthony Brackett saw Thomas 




•• Nor runil sights aloue, but rural souuds, 
Exhilarate the spirit, aud restore 
The tone of languid nature."— Cowper. 



Historical Sketch of Cushing's Island. 30 

Brackett shot down, and his wife, who was Mary, another daughter of 
Michael Mitton, and children taken into captivity, where she died within a 
year. Then they made their escape to Mun joy's garrison at the lower end 
of the Neck, which had become a place of refuge. 

The persons who had found an asylum in Munjoy's garrison, not willing 
to trust the security of the place, fled the same day to " James Andrews' 
Island," ' which lies at the mouth of the harbor and where Andrews had 
a garrison-house. From this place, their minister, the Rev. George 
Burroughs, immediately wrote to Henry Josselyn, of Black Point, for 
succor. They secured themselves upon the Island by building a new 
redoubt upon the inner slope of the Head, just above the present spring, 
where traces of it may yet be seen, and where Mr. E. P. Skillings, our 
most venerable ex-dweller, says he has seen piles of stones laid up like 
masonry, the remains of this old fortress. This they built because the old 
palisades of Captain Levett, which had been used as a garrison-house by 
Andrews, had long since tumbled into ruin, and because his site, defensible 
enough against the earlier arrows, was within easy musket range of and 
commanded by the adjacent heights. 

They then recollected that a quantity of powder had been left in one or 
two places in town, which they were desirous of obtaining, as well for their 
own protection as to keep it from the hands of the enemy, so they resolved 
to take measures in the night to recover it. They succeeded in the attempt, 
and brought away a barrel from the house of Mr. Wallis, and a consider- 
able quantity from a chest in a storehouse which the Indians had ransacked 
but had overlooked the powder. 

Next day George Lewis, who had remained in his house with his wife, 
without interruption, got safe to the Island, together with two men whom 
the inhabitants had sent out to give notice Westward some days previously. 
George Felt, also, a brother-in-law of our Andrews, brought his wife and 
children in safety in a boat from his home near Mussel Cove, and joined 
the others upon the Island. Mr. Burroughs' letter mentioned ten men, six 
women and sixteen children killed and carried away by the Indians, but 
names only three : the Bracketts and Munjoy. 

Finding their position better secured than they dared hope, the brave 
survivors, encouraged by the example of their stalwart clergyman, con- 
cluded to hold out as long as need be, and passed the entire summer on our 
Island, in a state of siege, their position embittered by witnessing the 
burnings of their homesteads, barns and standing crops; the tedium 
enlivened by occasional attacks, in one of which the Levett garrison was 

1 Now Cushiug's Island. 



30 Historical Sketch of Cushing's Island. 

enveloped in flames by the attacking savages. From time to time they 
received provisions from Boston and Black Point by water — but with so 
many mouths to feed dire distress for the necessities of life fell upon them, 
and seven devoted members of their band, under the leadership of George 
Felt, whose name alone survives, ventured to go upon House Island^ to 
procure provisions, there being a number of sheep there. They had scarcely 
landed when the Indians fell suddenly upon them, and, although they 
defended themselves with desperate courage from the ruins of a stone 
house, to which they had retreated, they were all destroyed — one only 
surviving his injuries long enough to tell the tale. 

" And how can men die better, than facing fearful odds, 
For the ashes of their fathers, and the temples of their Gods." 

May 17, 1698, James Andrews conveyed the Island to John Rouse, of 
Marshfield. Rouse conveyed it to John Brown, of Marshfield. As neither 
of them dwelt here, they will be dismissed without extended notice. 

24 March 1717, Brown transferred the Island to John Robinson, of 
Duxbury, Mass. 

8 March 1728-9, Robinson conveyed to Nathaniel Jones. ^ 

28 Sept. 1734, Jones conveyed to Joshua Bangs.' It was from his owner- 
ship of it that the Island got to be known as " Bangs Island," a name which 
it retained for over a hundred years, and which is incorporated into our 
Coast Survey charts. 

In 1757 and 1760, Bangs conveyed the Island to Ezekiel Gushing.* 

1 Munjoy's fishing Island, the old records give, which meant Honse Island, and not Munjoy's, 
now Peak's Island. 

2 Nathaniel Jones was the grandson of Josiah Jones, who came from England and settled in 
Weston, Mass., about 1G65. He removed to Falmouth about 1730, with his son Phineas, as they 
had both speculated largely in purchasing the titles of ancient settlers, among others our Island, and 
were deeply interested in establishing their claims. 

3 Capt. Joshua Bangs, born 1691, at Harwich, Mass., son of Capt. Edward and Ruth Bangs, 
aud was in the fourth generation from Edward Bangs, the American ancestor, who was born in 
Chichester, England, 1592, and came to this couutry in the third ship the "Ann," July, 1623. Capt. 
Joshua was a shipmaster, removed to Falmouth in 1731, whei-e he was subsequently a merchant, 
and represented the town in the General Court in 1711. He married Mehitable Clark of Harwich, 
June 18, 1713, and had by her three sous and five daughters, of whom Mehitable, born 1728, 
married, 1st, John Roberts, 1752, and, 2nd, Gen. Jededial Preble, 175-1. Bangs died May 23, 1762, 
in his 71st year. His wife predeceased him, April 5, 1761, aged 65. 

* Col. Ezekiel Cdshing was descended in the fourth generation from Matthew Cushing, the 
Emigrant; he was born at Scituate, Mass., 2Sth April, 1698, the son of Rev. Jeremiah and Hannah 
(Loring) Gushing. He removed to Cape Elizabeth as early as 1738; was one of the most distin- 
guished men in our neighborhood, and lived in a style befitting his successful commercial career. He 



Historical Sketch of Cushing's Island. 31 

Gushing reconveyed it to Joshua Bangs, Sept. 13. 17(30. From the lan- 
guage employed in the conveyance it is presumable that Col. Gushing built 
the old homestead house under the willows at some time prior to the date 
of his deed. After the death of Bangs the Island was conveyed, Sept. 12, 
1762, to Brigadier Jedediah Preble,' who had married his daughter, Mehita- 
ble Bangs. 

In 1812, Simeon Skillings," a descendant of Preble, by his first wife, 

commanded the regiment of the county, then the highest miUtary office in Maine ; was selectman 
nine years, and filled other important offices. He was largely engaged in the fisheries and the West 
India trade ; and during his time there was more commercial business carried on in Simonton's Cove 
and on the Cape Elizabeth shore than on the Falmouth side. He died May 7, 17G5, aged 67, leaving 
a large and well educated family. 

Near relatives of his held important judicial positions in Plymouth and Lincoln counties; and 
one had the distinguishing honor to be appointed to the Supreme Bench of the United States by 
President Washington. 

Col. Gushing and the late Lemuel Gushing, Esq., being descended from the same parent stock, 
were " first and fourth " cousins. 

See The CusJiing Genealogy : Willis. 

1 General Jedediah Preble was bom in York in 1707 ; he was son of Benjamin, and grandson 
of the first Abraham and Judith (Tilden) Preble. He settled here about 17-18 ; he represented the 
town in the General Court in 17.53. He married, first, Martha Junkins of York ; and second, in 
17.54, Mehitabel, daughter of Joshua Bangs, then the proprietor of our Island, she being then the 
widow of John Roberts. In 1755 he had a command, under Gen. Winslow, in removing the 
Acadians, or neutral French. In 1759 he was captain of a company of provincial troops, and joined 
the army in Canada under General Wolfe ; was in the battle on the Plains of Abraham, and near 
Gen. Wolfe when he was killed. [Some doubt has been expressed as to this statement by 
Mr. W. Goold.] Previous to the peace he was promoted gradually to the rank of Brigadier- 
■General, and had the command of the garrison at Fort Pownal, on the Penobscot, at the 
peace of 17G3 ; he was twice wounded during the war. He was twelve years a representative from 
the town, the first time in 1753, the last in 1780 ; was chosen Councillor in 1773, and though of the 
popular party, was one of six accepted by the Governor while the others were rejected. In 1774 he 
was aijpointed, first, Brigadier-General by the Provincial Congress, and in 1775 received the 
appointment of Major-General and Commander-in-Chief of the Massachusetts forces, which he 
declined on account of the infirmities of age. He was chosen the first Senator from Cumberland 
County under the Constitiitiou of 1780; was judge of the Court of Common Pleas in 1782 and 
1783. He died March 16, 1784, aged 77. His widow died in 1805, at the same age. By his two 
marriages he had ten children, the most distinguished of whom was Edward Preble, our celebrated 
Commodore. He in turn was grandfather of the late lamented Lieut. Edward E. Preble, who was 
navigating officer of the U. S. S. S. " Kearsarge " at the time she sunk the "Alabama" off 
Cherbourg. The late Bear- Admiral George H. Preble was also a grandson of the General. 

'- Simeon Skillings was descended in the seventh generation from Thomas Skillings, the first 
of the name, who settled at Back Cove as early as 1658. His mother was a granddaughter of old 
General Preble's — a fact that probably accounts for his acquisition of the ancestral acres on the Island. 

A full genealogical account of this family, by Mr. Sargent, has been printed in the ' Maine 
Hist. & Gen. Recorder," IL, 100. 



32 Historical Sketch of dishing' s Island. 

went to live upon the Island. He began to purchase parts of it as early as 
1823, of the various Preble heirs, and by mesne conveyances from their 
assigns; and in 1837 by such purchases, the particulars of which are too pro- 
lix for the scope of this Sketch, he had become possessed of six-sevenths of 
the whole Island ; the other one-seventh remaining in the heirs of Edward 
Preble. 

In 1858 by conveyance from Skillings, and in 18G0 by mesne convey- 
ances from his sons, the late Lemuel Gushing^ acquired the entire Skillings 
interests ; and in 1858 and 1850 he acquired the remaining Preble interest, 
thus uniting in himself, again, the consolidated title. 



CHANGES IN CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 

So many have been the changes of governments of this part of the State 
of Maine, affecting our Island, that a brief synopsis of them is expedient 
for perspicuity and reference : 

1 — Sir Ferdinando Gorges taking the 3d and ith of the 12 divisions in 
1G35, which he called New Somersetshire, formed a government 
therein under William Gorges. 

2 — His Charter of Maine and administration in 1639-40. 

1 Lemuel Gushing, the last owner of our Island, was descended in the seventh generation from 
the emigrant ancestor Matthew, a Puritan, who, with Governor Haynes, the ministers Cotton and 
Hooker and others, came to New England in 1633, and in the tv.-elfth generation from Thomas 
Gushing, a Squire of Hardingham, Norfolk Gounty, England. He was born at Three Rivers, 
Canada, 29th April, 180G, the eighth child of Job and Sarah (Rice) Gushing. He married Cathe- 
rine, daughter of John S. Hutchins of Lachute, Quebec. He was one of the pioneers in the 
settlement of the Ottawa Valley, having removed in early youth to the lumbering district of 
Chatham, on the Ottawa River, fifty miles above Montreal. Although then but sixteea years old, he 
oijened a store and commenced business for himself with> very small capital. He underwent many 
severe trials, but, possessed of indomitable energy and perseverance and a vigorous constitution, he 
successfully overcame them all, and attamed to considerable wealth and prominence. He acted as 
Justice of the Peace and Magistrate for over forty years, and for many years filled successively the 
offices of Councillor and Mayor of the Township, and Warden of the County. On the breaking out 
of the Canadian Rebellion in 1837, he armed a com^jany of volunteers in defense of the British 
flag, and marched with them to St. Eustache, and was instrumental in preventing much pillage and 
the destruction of the Registry Office of St. Benoit, in which were deposited many valuable papers. 
He was three several times owner of the celebrated Caledonia Springs ; and in 1859 purchased the 
property known as Cushing's Island, Portland, Me,, upon which he erected the now famous summer 
resort, the " Ottawa House." He died 18th May, 1875, aged 09, leaving a widow, by whom he had 
had thirteen children, of whom nine now survive. 

See The Cushing Genealogy. 




CLIFF. 

PcOinted by H. B. Brown. 



I love to stand on some high beetlmg rock. 

Or dusky brow of savage promontory, 

Watching the waves, with all their white crests dancing 

Come, like thick plum'd squadrons, to the shore, 

Gallantly bounding." — Sie A. Hunt. 



34 Historical Sketch of Cushincfs Island. 

3 — The division of the Province by the River Kennebunk. under Rigby's 
claim, and his rule of Lygonia, which included our Island, after KUfi, 
by Cleaves. 
•4 — Massachusetts in 1652-53 assumes to govern Gorges' part ; and in 1658 

Rigby's part also. 
5 — The King's three Commissioners, in 1665, took command of the 

whole. 
6 — Massachusetts, in 1668, resumed the government of the entire Pro- 
vince, and in 1677 purchased it. 
7 — An administration, in 1670-80, is established under the exclusive trust 

of President Danforth. 
8 — In 1686, President Dudley, and after him Governor Andros, was 

commissioned to govern it and other Provinces. 
9 — Massachusetts, in 1689, ousted Andros of his power, and soon recom- 
mitted the government to Danforth.' 
10 — Falmouth incorporated a town, 1718. 
11 — Cumberland County established, 1760. 
12 — Portland set off from Falmouth, and incorporated a town, -ith July, 

1786. 
13 — Maine admited a State of the Union, 1820. 
14 — Portland adopted a City charter, 26th March, 1832. 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 

The most influential of our early settlers were Episcopalians, and had 
brought with them from England the religious forms which prevailed in 
that country, and did not come to avoid them as was the case with the col- 
onists of Plymouth and Massachusetts.' They had been joined by others 
who moved out of Massachusetts to escape the uncompromising and intol- 
erant spirit of its puritanical government. 

Of these churchmen was our James Andrews, whose parents, as shown 
in another place, on emigrating had brought their certificates of conformity 
to the Church of England ; and at his mother's house upon the main were 
held occasional services of the Church. 

Although the Rev. Stephen Batchiler, who came early with the Plough 
Company, wrote that he had been solicited by the people of Casco to remain 
and officiate among them, which he did not see fit to do, the earliest 

1 Williamson. 2 Willis. 



Historical Sketch of Cushing's Island. 



35 



church in this vicinity was gathered upon Richmond's Island, under the 
pastoral charge of the Rev. Richard Gibson, a graduate of Magdalen Col- 
lege, Cambridge, in 1686, who was sent over by Trelawny soon after leav- 
ing college ; and our pioneers, would of a Sabbath morning when the 
weather was propitious, coast around the pitch of the Cape to the Island in 
flotillas of small sailing craft, to partake of the communion, for the distance 
through the untraversed woods and across the pathless country was too 
great. In 1640 he removed hence to Portsmouth. 




CLIFFS ON THE OCEAN SIDE. 

" There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, 
There is a rapture on the lonely shore, 
There is society where none intrudes 
By the deep sea, and music in its roar." — Bxeon. 



He was succeeded in his ministrations to this and the neighboring set- 
tlements by the Rev. Robert Jordan, a graduate of Oxford (matriculated at 
Balliol Coll. 1632), who married Sarah, second daughter of Capt. John Winter, 
settling at Spurwink, and inheriting with her the vast landed estates that, 
joined with their own industrious exertions, has enabled successive genera- 
tions of his descendants to maintain a position of comfortable independence. 
He played a very important part in the civil as well as the ecclesiastical 
history of our neighborhood. He was abused, vilified, fined and imprisoned 
by men every way his inferior, for exercising his remarkable talents, and 



36 Historical Sketch of Ciishings Island. 

daring to serve his God in the forms prescribed by his Church. Because of 
the scattered conditions of his parish his visitations included a wide mis- 
sionary range ; and among the beautiful pictures of our early Island occu- 
pancy may be painted this venerable priest clad in his sacred vestments 
receiving into the fold the rising generation of the Andrews, 

We. here, lie under a special debt of gratitude to this worthy gentleman 
for delivering us from the shadow of a great crime ; for it was to his hard 
common sense as well as trained powers of reasoning, and the authorita- 
tive exercise of his commanding influence, that we owe the prompt stamp- 
ing out of the damnable hallucination of witchcraft on its first and only 
appearance in our neighborhood ; for the Rev. John Hale narrates that 
" circiter Anno 1G50": "One Mr. Thorpe, a drunken Preacher, was gotten 
in to Preach at Black Point under the appearance and profession of a min- 
ister of the Gospel, and boarded at the house of Goodman Bayly, and Bay- 
lye's wife observed his conversation to be contrary to his calling, gravely 
told him his way was contrary to the Gospel of Christ, and desired him to 
reform his life or leave her house. So he departed from the house, and 
turned her eneni}^, and found an opportunity to do her an injury: and so it 
fell out that Mr. Jordan of Spurwink had a cow died, and about that time 
Goody Bayly had said she intended such a day to travel to Casco Bay. 
Mr. Thorpe goes to Mr. Jordan's man or men, and saith the cow was 
bewitched to death, and if they would lay the carcass in a place he should 
appoint, he would burn it and bring the witch: and accordingly the cow is 
laid by the path that led from Black Point to Casco, and set on fire that 
day Goody Bayly was to travel that way, and so she came by while the 
carcass was in burning, and Thorpe had her questioned for a witch: But 
Mr. Jordan interposed in her behalf; and said his cow dyed by his servants 
negligence, and to cover their own fault they were willing to have it 
imputed to witchcraft; and Mr. Thorpe knew of Goody Bayly's intended 
journey, and orders my servants (says he) without my approbation, to 
burn my cow in the way where Bayly is to come ; and so unravelled the 
knavery and delivered the innocent." 

Mr. Jordan was driven off in 1675, at the outbreak of the first Indian 
war ; and died four years later at Newcastle, N. H. 

The reflection of how much we owe to Mr. Jordan is brought home to 
us all the more forcibly and pathetically by the sad fate of his successor, 
the Rev. George Burroughs (graduated at Harvard College, 1670), who was 
called to the ministry at Falmouth in 1674, and who fell a victim to that 
stupid and wicked fanaticism, and was hanged by the Salem people, 10th 
August, 1692. While he dwelt among us he sustained a singularly pure 



Historical Sketch of Cushing's Island, 37 

and unselfish life, and was of service to his parishoners in militant as well 
as sacredotal offices ; for he was the guiding and inspiriting leader of the 
stubborn defense of the fort on our Island upon the inside slope of White 
Head during the whole summer of 1676, referred to in another place : and 
Major Church, in commenting on his conduct at the pitched battle with the 
Indians, in Deering's Oaks, in 1689, especially commends his bravery in 
action. 

After the third settlement, our Island became an appendage of the 
First Parish ; and its further history can be traced in Willis's entertaining 
" History of Portland." 



ISLAND LIFE, AMUSEMENTS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS. 

One marked characteristic of our Islanders cannot fail to arrest the atten- 
tion of the close observer. These people have ever been of purer English blood 
than now remains in any county of the mother country, and the explanation 
of this seemingly paradoxical assertion lies in the fact that being descended 
from the families that came here from 1620 to 1650, from the South and West 
of England, they have been singularly free from immigration, more so than 
the home communities, or other parts of New England, and with what has 
come there has been but little intermarrying by the old English stock — per- 
haps in occasional families a tinge of Scottish or Huguenot blood, but not 
enough to affect this generalization. The effect of this is noticeable in the 
language spoken here with greater average purity than by the common 
people in any part of England ; in the idioms and figures of speech that 
survive, in the games our children play, the songs we sing and love for old 
remembrance's sake, and even in the modulations of the voice and the pecul- 
iar sweetness of the enunciation of the vowels. 

Even our fishermen and mariners, accustomed as they are to ' ' howl 
adown the gale," in their gentler converse and especially their fireside talk 
amaze the twangy or flat-vowelled visitor by the absence of that nasal 
chant he is told exists, if at all, still further " down East." If not the same 
as the people of Sussex of to-day, we can lay fully as justifiable a claim as 
they to a striking resemblance, and perhaps unconscious, because inbred, 
imitation that has preserved the type of our common ancestor, the South 
Saxon. 

There was, of course, a social life upon the Island when in turn it enter- 
tained its neighbors. There were occasional evening parties, dances when 
the old roof-tree rung with the olden melodies, tea-drinkings and quilting- 



38 



Historical Sketch of Cushing's Island. 




THE OLD COTTAGE IN THE HOLLOW. 

" A little lowly hermitage it was, 
Down in a dale hard by a forest's side, 
Far from resort of people that did pass 
In travel to and fro." — Spensbk. 



bees, singing-schools and spelling matches where the young people did 
their courting — for such renowned beauties as Mistresses Hannah Gushing, 
Mehitable Bangs and Nancy Preble had many a follower in their train from 
the neighboring main, and when their numerous brothers and sisters added 
their quota of admiring friends the old parlors were at times thronged 
to their utmost capacity, for our Island has, time out of mind, had a hos- 
pitable reputation, and invitations were ever in demand. In some of 
these there was no little form and ceremony, following traditionary fash- 
ions, but the impromptu amusements or new invented games were more 
free, and ended in fun or frolic before which the stately reserve in the rela- 
tions of the sexes would thaw and bashfulness succumb to captivating 
graces. 



Historical Sketch of Cushirig's Island. 39 

But in the dearth of such and kindred employment for the young, and 
the more sedate religious meetings, conventions, lectures and concerts for 
the elders, that would intervene in the long storms of winter, they did not 
feel lost or lonely in their isolated home, for in the midst of this simplicity 
of life there were the resources of no little culture and refinement ; because 
there were ever gentlemen and ladies in the old homestead, who did honor 
to the local society, and would have graced any in the world ; who culti- 
vated the fields with the happy independence of their free choice, or 
perfected the concomitant arts of butter and cheese making, but who had 
had the cultivation of our highest University, who knew Greek and Latin, 
and would speak or write them on occasion, as extant diaries show, who 
were familiar with theology and politics, as well as with the arts and 
accomplishments of refined society. 



OUR FIRST AND ORIGINAL PIRATE. 

Quite a number of deep pitholes are to be seen here and there on the 
Island. Failing to discover any overturned monarchs of the forest that 
in their fall could have upheaved such masses of earth clinging to 
their radiating roots, the conclusion is forced upon one that these have been 
the work of men. For what purpose ? Why, in the hunt for concealed 
treasures ! For, long before the days of Captain Kidd, these coasts were 
ravaged by a daring pirate : and tradition hands down that once when 
wind-bound under the neighboring Cape, baulked in his design of marauding 
the prosperous fishing community at Richmond's Island, our pirate, Dixy 
Bull, landed on this Island and buried the larger part of his ill-gotten gains. 
This fellow illustrates in his career how true it is that 

"Houor aud shame from no conditiou rise." 

Starting in life here under the happiest circumstances, with such associates 
as the younger Gorges, the Nortons and others of his name, but of more 
respectability, he seems to have lacked the recuperative energy to rebuild 
his shattered fortunes, and the moral stamina to resist the temptation to an 
easy, roving life. 

Associated 2 Dec. 1631 with a dozen others as grantees of 12,000 acres 
of land at the River Agamenticus,' intent upon quicker returns than the 
tilling of the soil would render, he engaged in the beaver trade. On one 

1 MS copj' of State Papers. 



40 



Historical Sketch of Cushi)ig''s Island. 




" Or, uuderneatli the shadow vast of patriarchal tree. 

Scan through its leaves the cloudless sky in rapt trauquillity." 

— Moth ee well. 



of his voyages he was captured by the French, as a preventive measure, 
he having ventured too far Eastward into waters they claimed, and his 
shallop and cargo were declared forfeit, and taken from him. Finding 
others with like grievances as his own, they banded together to the num- 
ber of sixteen and began a war of retaliation, in which they were success- 
ful enough to capture a vessel or two. Flushed with their successes, con- 
sidering themselves invincible by any such force as the infant Colonies 
could equip and send after them, and failing to find other Frenchmen for 
victims, they next turned against their quondam friends, pillaged the 
English plantations, sacked Pemaquid, and even formed designs 
against the Western settlements. But not being "to the manner born'^ 
and not having been so long steeped in vice as to have overcome all 
scruples, they manifested a faint-heartedness even in the midst of their 
career, "making a law against excessive drinking, indulging in song only 



Historical Sketch of Cushing's Island. 41 

at such times as other ships use to hare prayer," that gave place to an 
:abject terror when they learned that slow-footed but outraged Justice was 
on their track; and "they were filled with such fear and horrour that they 
w^ere afraid of the very rattling of the ropes," 

Capt. John Winter writes, 11 July 1G33: "The last yeare heare was one 
that was a trader for beaver that is now turned pirate, and hath done 
much spoyle heare In the Country: his name is Bull. He is one of Lon- 
don. He tooke away from the plantation at Pemequid as much goods and 
provisions as is valued to be worth five hundred pounds, and this Bull yf 
winde and weather would have given him leave had an intent to com 
heare at Richmon Hand to have taken away their provisions also, and did 
purpose to have one of their men, as they say ; therefore we must have 
somm ordinance . and provision for to defend ourselves ; doubtinge such 
threats would harm men who are for us."^ 

Their disbanding was hastened by a fortunate shot from Pemaquid that 
killed one of their number, and the men dispersed to the Eastward, but 
Bull himself was lost on his way to Virginia." 



OUR SEA SERPENT. 

So veracious a history would be incomplete without more than passing 
notice of another of our occasional visitors, if not a regular frequenter. 
You may doubt and question as you will, but you will finally have to accept 
as a positive fact the existence of the maligned and much questioned sea- 
serpent et id omne genus. But even should you be vouchsafed an 
introduction, you will not find him so dreadful a creature ; for all the 
accounts that have found their way into print have established a reputation 
for harmlessness — when let strictly alone — as a characteristic of the sea 
monsters that frequent our Northern latitudes, that will be reassuring to 
the frequenters of our bathing-beach. It is undeniable that tradition 
justifies a well-founded suspicion that unprovoked attack might develop 
dangerous resentment from a creature possessed of such latent powers ; 
for, did not the veracious John Josselyn tell " of a Sea-Serpent or Snake 
that lay quoiled up like a cable upon a Rock ; a boat passing by with 
English aboard and two Indians, they would have shot the Serpent, but the 

1 Trelawny Papers. 

~ -4 Mass. Hist. Coll. VII, 18. Dr. Banks prepared an interesting paper in this connection. It 
anay be consulted at Vol 1., p. 57 of the " Maine Hist, and Gen. Recorder." 



42 Historical Sketch of Cushing's Island. 

Indians disswaded them, saying that if he were not killed outright, they 
would be all in danger of their lives.'" 

Our Capt. Christopher Levett, during his habitation upon our Island, 
saw several of these monsters disporting themselves in the neighboring 
waters, and thus quaintly records his impressions: "the strange fish we 
saw there, some with manes, ears and heads, and chasing one another with 
open mouths like stone horses in a park.'" 

An intelligible description, as given by an eye-witness very recently, 
mav not be without interest, and exactly fits our especial property portrait 
on the outside cover. It appeared "about two hundred yards ahead of us 
and reared his head and part of his body about fifty feet in all, its head 
being about fifteen feet out of water at an angle of about fifteen degrees, 
and suddenly dipped it again ; this was repeated three times before it was 
lost sight of. On passing within a minute directly through the water it had 
occupied, it was very much agitated and differently to the effect left behind 
by a whale or any other known denizen of the deep. Judging from the portion 
seen, the serpent could not have been less than one hundred feet long, and 
about the size of a molasses hogshead in the middle. Its head and jaws 
had a flat, square appearance, by no means enticing or inviting to a near 
approach." 

From all reports, its size seems tolerably uniform ; the color is generally 
reported the same, a black, or blackish brown, with an undertone upon the 
lower surface. Its eyes are very prominent upon the upper part of the 
head. Its speed, when not disturbed, is not usually over five or six knots, 
but when making off from apparent danger or pursuit it speeds away so 
rapidly that vanishing showers of foam and spray mark its course for but 
a few brief seconds. Instead of being fierce or irritable, the creature seems 
especially susceptible to the charms of music, as water parties are agreed 
in reporting. Whether its peculiar undulatory dorsal movement may be a 
frolicsome participation and beating of time, or whether its structural 
anatomy restricts it from the sinuous lateral movements of snakes and 
eels, belongs to the province of the naturalists, who yet discuss whether 
this be a descendant of the plesiosaurians, or simply a variation of the 
coimnon cetaceans, or if it is a new genus yet to be classified. 

1 Josselyn's Voyages. 2 Address to the Council for N. E. 



Historical Sketch of Cushing's Island. 



43 




ON THE OUTER SHORE. 

Portland Head Light in the distance. From a Painting by H. B. Brown. 

' ' As the dark waves of the sea 

Draw in and out of rocky rifts, 
Calling solemnly to thee 

With voices deep and hollow, — 
To the shore. 
Follow, oh follow! 
To be at rest forevermore, 
Forevermore. " — J. B. Lowell. 



THE SECOND DESTRUCTION OF FALMOUTH, MAYpO, 1G90. 



As the first destruction of Falmouth, in 1676, narrated in the foregoing 
pages, was the outgrowth of Massachusetts' troubles with the Indians 
rather than a result of any local quarrels, or any especial grievances the 
savages had against our own people, so this second attack was rendered 
feasible if not directly instigated by the penurious neglect of the Massa- 
chusetts authorities of the Province they had purchased of the Gorges heirs. 



44 Historical Sketch of Cushing's Island. 

after depreciating its value by their repeated encroachments. They 
grumbled at the heavy expense of the last war ; they even considered a 
proposition to sell the Province rather than continue the expense of properly 
administering and defending it ; and then tried to throw all the cost of 
defense upon the struggling settlements. Even the expense of building- 
Fort Loyal was defrayed by sale of lands about it. 

The Indians recommenced hostilities in August, 1688. In June, 1689, the 
lieutenants of the Falmouth Foot Company wrote representing ' ' there were 
but few men in the fort and they about worn out with watching ; that they 
had but 3>2 pounds of powder, 24 hand grenades, 2]4 pounds of musket 
shot, 20 balls for the great guns, a small quantity of match, about 30 
cartridge boxes for small arms, not one musket belonging to the fort, and 
no provisions.-'^ 

These representations did arouse that Government to a fitful activity, 
and an expedition under the famous Captain Benjamin Church was sent 
into Maine. This resulted in that battle on the Deering farm in October. 
1689, between the troops of Church aided by the men of Falmouth, and 
the French and Indians, in which the English were victorious, of which 
Sullivan wrote: "This action, 1689, was terminated in favor of Church, 
and altho his troops suffered very much, yet he saved the town (Casco). 
and the whole eastern country by that action. " 

But the savage foe, though checked, was not conquered, and in spite of 
the apprehensions of the inhabitants, and the representations of Church on 
the exposed and necessitous situation of Falmouth, the expeditionary force 
was withdrawn instead of quartered as garrisons, and the Massachusetts 
people replied "that they could do nothing till Sir Edmund [Andros] was 
gone." 

In the spring of 1690, the French sent out three marauding expeditions 
from Canada ; one, supplemented from their savage allies, rendezvoused at 
Merry meeting Bay, comprising a force of between four and five hundred, 
under the French leaders, Portneuf , Hertel, Baron de Castine, and Courte- 
manche, and the Indian chiefs, Madockawando, Moxus, Hopegood, Robin 
Doney, Hignon, and some inferior chieftains. Captain Willard was at that 
time in command of Fort Loyal, with a force of one hundred men. If they 
had remained. Fort Loyal would not have been taken. Warning had been 
given by savage attacks upon Schenectady, and Salmon Falls. But with 
full knowledge that the enemy were menacing the frontier Eastern settle- 
ments, what did the Bay authorities do but adopt the asinine policy of a 

1 Mass. Archs. 



Historical Sketch of Cushing's Island. 45 

counter expedition against Nova Scotia, withdraw all of her troops to par- 
ticipate therein, and leave Fort Loyal and Falmouth to their own resources 
against the foe then hovering round their borders. 

But loyal hearts and true had gathered under the command of Capt. 
Sylvanus Davis, who succeeded Capt. Willard after his apparently cowardly 
withdrawal from the face of danger. Capt. Davis voiced the determination 
of the sturdy men of Falmouth "to hassard our lives upon the place 
rather than Drawe off without orders." 

The combined force of French and Indians came into Casco Bay from 
the Kennebeck by way of New Meadows River, meeting no opposition 
from the scattered settlements whence the inhabitants had retired to the 
protection of Fort Loyal. They made their rendezvous on some of the 
islands, and soon spied out the weakness of the garrison, ascertaining quite 
well the number of English left after the departure of Captain Willard. 

Amid the darkness of the night of the loth of May they moved their 
forces from the islands to that part of Munjoy's Hill near the G. T. R. 
Bridge, which to this day bears the name of '• Indian Cove." The next 
morning a detachment of them proceeded to the top of the hill and 
concealed themselves in the low woods and underbrush, waiting for the 
opportunity to begin the attack. They were soon discovered by some of the 
soldiers at the Lawrence garrison house, and reported to Capt. Davis at 
the Fort. The officers resolved upon a sortie to dislodge and drive away 
this supposed small party of Indians, and towards noon a party of young 
men full of zeal and courage set out under the command of Lieut. Thaddeus 
Clark. What happened is best narrated by the French themselves : "At 
noon thirty men issued from the principal fort, and came to the spot where 
our people lay, who, having discharged their guns at ten paces distance, 
rushed on them sword and hatchet in hand, and pursued them so hotly that 
only five of them, all of whom were wounded, entered the fort again. As 
our men followed hot foot they were exposed to the fire of one of the forts, 
in the proximity 6f which they happened to find themselves. One French- 
man received a wound in the thigh and an Indian was killed. At night the 
principal fort was summoned to surrender, but an answer was returned 
'that they should defend themselves to the death.'" 

The struggle lasted four days and nights. The Lawrence garrison was 
abandoned, its defenders retiring into Fort Loyal, where the inhabitants, 
to the number of two hundred or more, sought refuge and safety ; but the 
fighting force did not exceed seventy men. 

The next morning the enemy resumed the attack, setting fire to the 
deserted houses. The first day of the siege passed without definite results, 



46 Historical Sketch of Cushing's Island. 

the enemy gaining no advantages. The next day the French leaders 
became satisfied that notwithstanding their superior force they could not 
capture the fort by direct assault, having no cannon with which to effect a 
breach. So they resorted to mining, the fort having been incautiously 
built so near the verge of the bank that under its shelter they could 
commence digging not more than fifty feet away, entirely protected from 
its guns. 

This mine gave every promise of proving successful, and the garrison 
had been so reduced in number by the unsuccessful sortie and by successive 
casualties, that a hand-to-hand conflict in the breach would have been 
hopeless. The foe had succeeded repeatedly in setting fire to the buildings 
of the fortification, that had been with difficulty extinguished, and were 
now advancing a fire machine against the palisades that proved still more 
effectual, the fiames taking hold of the dried logs and crackling among the 
foundations, filling the fortress with unendurable smoke. The brave 
defenders then realized that they were doomed ; that no choice was left to 
them but to surrender or be destroyed in the flames. 

Up to that time the English had not discovered that there were any 
French among their assailants, supposing from the equipment and dress 
that they were all Indians. Some order in French accents by a leader 
reached the ear of Capt. Davis, which gave him a ray of hope. If there 
were any whites among their foes, would they not respect the rights of 
war and the duties of humanity, and protect them, if they surrendered, 
from their savage associates ? Relying upon a favorable answer from 
Portneuf, promising quarter, up went the white flag of surrender. 

But what a scene followed, of pillage, devastation, outrage and massacre ! 
The terms of capitulation were grossly and barbarously violated by the 
insatiate savages, unchecked by the French ; and of the men, women and 
children, even of the wounded, who surrendered, Capt. Davis says only three 
or four were spared and carried into captivity with him to Canada.^ 



INDIAN WARS. 

The thrilling incidents of these first two wars have been set out some- 
what in extenso, because of the prominent place our Island filled in the 
one as a situs belli, and because she was a silent and frowning witness of 

1 I am indebted to Mr. J. T. Hull's Pajjer on Fort Loyal, just published, for the foregoing 
graphic description. The reader is referred to it for fuller accounts. 



Historical Sketch of Cushing's Island. 47 

the wide-spread desolation and misery occasioned by the other. Indeed, 
she suffered sorely herself; swept of all the improvements industrious 
hands had reared, her fields neglected, she sat in mourning garb await- 
ing the dawning of better days. Nor should it be omitted that one of 
her own sons played a manly part in these exciting times. Elisha Andrews, 
son of our first James, held a commission under Church and was distin- 
guished for coolness in action and ready resource against the wily foe. 
So, too, did her subsequent masters. Colonel Ezekiel Cushing and General 
Jedediah Preble win honor and renown in the Five Years' War and the 
French and Indian War. 

Between 1075 and 17G0, there were six Indian wars, covering thirty -five 
of those years, ' ' when ahnost every house was a garrison, and every man 
carried a gun to meeting." The last hostile act in this vicinity was the 
attack upon Mr. Thomas Means' house at Flying Point, Freeport, May 4, 
1756. 

A table of these wars and the principal treaties with the Eastern tribes 
is here subjoined, which will not be without interest to the general reader, 
and which will prove of needed assistance to any summer sojourner who 
may wish to further pursue such thrilling chapters on the events of those 
blood-stained wars as may be found in the Public Library of the City: 

Mugg's treaty, Nov. 6, 1676.— 2 NeaVs N. E., p. 403. 

1 — King Philip's war, from June 24, 1675, to the treaty of Casco, Apr. 12,. 
1678.— Jfa^s.i?ec. 

2 — King William's war, from Aug. 13, 1688, to the treaty of Mare Point, 
Brunswick, Jan'y 7, 1699. — 2 Mather's Magnalia, 556. 

Treaty of Pemaquid, Aug. 11, 1693. — 2 Mather's Magnalia, 542. 

3_Queen Anne's war, from Aug., 1703 to the treaty of Portsmouth, July 
11, 1713.— Penhalloiv's Ind. Wars, 83. 

4 — Lovewell's war, from June 13, 1722, to Dummer's celebrated treaty, 
Dec. 15, 1725. — Secretary's Office. 

5_Spanish, or Five Years' War, from July 19, 1745, to the treaty of Fal- 
mouth, Oct. 16, 1749.— 9 Mass. Hist. Coll., 220. 

Treaty of Halifax, Aug. 15, 1749. — Secretary's Office. 

6_French and Indian war, from April , 1755, to the conquest of Quebec 
and treaty of Halifax, Feb. 22, 1760. 

Treaty with the Mickmacks and Marechites, July 19, 1776.* 

1 Williamsou, I., 490, n. 




/^.M^RICAN P«ui u t-Na.CO.N.Y 
CLIFFS NEAR WHITE HEAD. 
'Not to be shook thyself; but all assaults 
Bam.ng, like thy hoar cliffs the loud sea-wave. "-Thomson, 



Historical Sketch of Cusliing's Island, 4J> 

OTHER HISTORICAL INCIDENTS. 

THIRD DESTRUCTION OF FALMOUTH, OCT. 18TH, 1775. 

Scarce half a generation's space from the final burying of the tomahawk 
precipitated the troubles of the Revolution ; and from presenting a united 
front to a common foe, the citizens of our community were divided by sym- 
pathies and interests into two hostile camps. With the growth of the town 
a very considerable Episcopal society was gathered, composed largely of 
the crown officers of the seat of justice and royal port of entry and their 
political friends, who were naturally warmly attached to the crown inter- 
ests and hostile to the growing sentiment for popular government. A bit- 
terness of feeling had been engendered in the minds of the conservative 
element by many aggressive acts of the growing patriotic party, like the 
burning of the hated stamps in the custom-house ; the resolutions against 
tea-drinking ; the muffled tolling of the meeting-house bell when the port 
of Boston was closed, and the holding of conventions ; that prompted the 
advocates of the crown to denounce Falmouth to the home authorities as 
second only to Boston in rebellious spirit. 

One Coulson, a wealthy Tory, achieved the unenviable distinction of 
hastening the inevitable conflict by importing from England the sails, rig- 
ging and stores for a large ship he had built here. Opposed by the citizens 
who determined he should not land nor use them, he appealed for aid to Cap- 
tain Henry Mowatt, R. N. . who was stationed at Boston in the sloop-of-war 
'' Canceau." Mowatt, finding upon his arrival the excitement among the 
people at fever heat, and being unprepared and probably not as yet 
instructed to resort to violent measures, was very imprudently arrested, 
whilst negotiations were pending, by Colonel Samuel Thompson, a bold, 
reckless man, who had come from Brunswick, with fifty picked men for 
the avowed purpose of seizing the sloop-of-war. Encamping secretly in a 
grove on Munjoy's Hill, they could not resist the temptation that offered to 
seize upon the persons of Captain Mowatt and his surgeon while they were 
exercising upon the shore, thus frustrating their bolder design by betray- 
ing their presence ; for the plucky seoond-in-command threatened to open 
fire on the town if his captain was not immediately set free, and thus 
secured their release. 

The news of the peril of the town brought hundreds of militia men from 
the country, and Mowatt, though smarting under this indignity, consider- 
ing his force too weak to wreak the vengeance he threatened, upon such 



50 Historical Sketch of Cushing's Island. 

numbers, weighed anchor on the 16th of May, and sailed for Portsnioutli. 
taking Coulson and his ship with him. 

Mowatt procured from Admiral Greaves, who then commanded on this 
station, an order for the destruction of the town, and the force with which 
to execute it. On October 16th he arrived here from Boston, with a formid- 
able flotilla under his command, consisting of the "Canceau," another ship 
called the ''Cat,'' two schooners and a bomb-sloop. Warping up into the 
harbor, he sent a letter ashore in the afternoon of the 17th informing the 
people that he had been sent to " execute a just punishment on the town of 
Falmouth," and allowed them but two hours to remove themselves and 
families from the scene of danger. A committee of citizens expostulated 
with Mowatt upon the cruelty of his order, and obtained a postponement of 
the bombardment until the next morning, coupled with an offer to delay 
the execution of it until he had sent an express to Boston for further 
instructions, provided the people would, before eight o'clock the next 
morning, surrender four pieces of cannon which were then in town, and 
all their small arms and ammunition. A meeting was held, and the 
inhabitants, with a firmness and courage worthy of all praise and a better 
fate, while the loaded cannon were pointed toward them, resolutely rejected 
a proposition which carried with it the abject terms of surrendering their 
arms to save their property. 

At half -past nine o'clock on the morning of the 18th, Mowatt commenced 
firing from all the vessels in the harbor, which kept up a discharge of solid 
and red-hot shot, bombs, carcasses, shells, grape-shot and musket balls, 
with little cessation, until six o'clock in the evening. In the meantime, 
parties landed from the vessels and set fire to various buildings. The 
inhabitants were so much occupied in removing their families and property 
to places of safety, that but little resistance was made to the parties which 
landed. No plan of defence had been concerted ; the soldiers were 
scattered ; part of them having that morning returned from the islands, 
where they had been on duty, were employed in saving their families and 
goods, and the remainder were without any sufficient leader ; all, both 
soldiers and civilians, were in too great consternation to make any effectual 
resistance. There was also a deficiency of powder, there not being an 
hour's supply in the town. Had there been one company here, well 
organized and of sufficient coolness, much of the evil occasioned by 
straggling marines might have been prevented. Several of the British 
were killed and wounded ; none, fortunately, were killed on the side of the 
inhabitants, and only one wounded. 

The town soon presented a broad sheet of flame, which, as the buildings 



Historical Sketch of Cushing's Island. 51 

were of wood, spread with great rapidity, and involved all the thickest part 
of the settlement in one common ruin. 

The situation of the inhabitants after the fire was one of great suffering 
and distress ; many families who had formerly been in comfortable circum- 
stances had lost all their property, and were turned out houseless at the 
beginning of winter. Two hundred and seventy-eight dwelling-houses and 
other public and private buildings had been consumed, bringing the whole 
number up to four hundred and fourteen, and the aggregate loss to the 
enormous sum, for those days, of fifty-four thousand five hundred and 
twenty -seven pounds, thirteen shillings. 

This widespread devastation was not replaced for many years, as but 
little exertion was made to build up the waste places till the war was over ; 
and it was not till 1799 that the dwelling-houses again numbered so many 
as four hundred and fifty-nine.^ 

THE "ENTERPRISE" AND "BOXER" ENGAGEMENT, 

September 5, 1813. 

A signal naval battle was fought on this day between these two brigs 
within full sight and hearing of our Island, between here and Monhegan. 
and the Island was thronged with anxious spectators of it. The " Boxer," 
a British brig of eighteen guns and a crew of a hundred and four men 
under command of Captain Samuel Blythe, had been for some time cruis- 
ing along our coast, committing great depredations. The American brig 
" Enterprise," which carried sixteen guns and a hundred and two men, 
was at anchor in Portland harbor. She was commanded by Captain Wil- 
liam Burrows, twenty -eight years of age." The "■ Boxer " lay off and on in 
front of the harbor, for the purpose of bringing on an engagement — a chal- 
lenge that was perfectly understood and readily accepted. So, when Cap- 
tain Blythe made his last tack to the westward from off Seguin, he 
discerned his antagonist rounding out past our Island and bearing down 
upon him with every sail set to the light midday breeze. By three o'clock 
in the afternoon, they had approached within half pistol-shot, and began 
pouring into one another terrific broadsides. For thirty-five minutes the 
contest raged around ; the decks ran blood ; the idle sails and rigging shot 
away or hanging in tatters told of the severity as well as the three eight- 
een-pound shot, eighteen large grape and sixteen musket-balls that were 
found embedded in the " Boxer's " mainmast. Under such a terrific fire as 

' Taken mainly from Willis. ^ Diai-y of Rev. Samuel Deane. 



53 



Historical Sketch of Cushing's Island. 



swept their decks both gallant captains fell, and when the " Boxer " struck 
she had lost in killed and wounded forty-six men besides; the "Enter- 
prise," more fortunate, escaping with two killed and twelve wounded. The 
next day the victorious brig returned to Portland with her prize ; and on 
the 8th the two commanders were accorded a burial made splendid by all 
the pomp and circumstance of war but more impressive by the general sad- 
ness that prevailed for the untimely loss of a beloved friend and a res- 
pected foe. 




SHIPWEEOK ON THE OUTER SHOKE. 

From a Painting by H. B. Brown. 

Cloud upon cloud, in dark and deepening mass, 
Rolls o'er the blackened waters; the deep roar 
Of distant thunder mutters awfully ; 
Tempest unfolds its pinion o'er the gloom 
That shrouds the boiling surge; the pitiless fiend, 
With all his winds and lightnings, tracks his prey: 
The torn deep yawns, — the vessel finds a grave 
Beneath its jagged gulf,"— Shelley. 



Historical Sketch of Cushing's Island. 53 



THE "TACONY"-" GUSHING" AFFAIR, 1863. 

Our Island witnessed quite a different affair upon the bosom of the broad 
Atlantic about equidistant from herself and HarpsweU. The Adjutant- 
General of the State reported: "The prompt and vigilant action on the 
part of the civil authorities in capturing the officers and crew of the rebel 
bark '* Tacony," off the harbor of Portland, on the 26th of June, 18G3, 
forms one of the most brilliant pages in the history of the war, and will 
ever be remembered as a gallant and praiseworthy affair." 

On the morning of that day the city was thrown into the wildest state 
of excitement by the spreading of the news that the " Caleb Gushing," the 
United States revenue cutter, had been successfully cut out during the 
night by the rebels, and was then making her way out to sea, having been 
discovered from the Observatory about half-past seven. Though a sailing 
vessel, she had been heavily armed and properly provisioned, and 
ordered to cruise for the privateer •' Tacony," that had been depredating 
along our coast ; because of the recent death of her captain she was waiting 
for a new commander, under charge of a lieutenant ; and her proceeding to 
sea gave rise to suspicions that were confirmed by after-discovered facts. 
Lieut. G. W. Read, a commissioned officer of the rebel navy, had abandoned 
and burned the " Tacony," and, transferring himself to a fishing vessel, 
the "Archer," which he had captured, he sailed into the harbor and 
anchored overnight. Between the hours of one and two o'clock, they 
silently boarded the '" Gushing" from boats, and, overpowering the watch, 
made prisoners of, ironed and confined the crew below. He then towed his 
prize out of the harbor with his boats, passing between Cow and Hog 
Islands, thus avoiding the forts, and standing out to sea by the Green 
Islands. At ten A. M. he was about fifteen miles from the city, when the 
wind left him becalmed. 

Collector Jewett immediately chartered the steamers " Forest City " and 
"Casco"and the tug "Tiger;" Mayor McLellan chartered the propeller 
" Chesapeake," and they were all armed with cannon and filled with U. S. 
Regulars from the fort, part of the 7th Maine Regiment, and volunteer 
citizens with plenty of arms and ammunition. The " Forest City," starting 
first, received the honor of several shots from the captured cutter, but they 
all fortunately fell short. After consultation it was determined to run the 
cutter down with the " Chesapeake," and she steamed ahead for that 
purpose. It seems that they had exhausted all the shot from the 



oJ: Historical Sketch of Cushing's Island. 

racks, and were unable to find the reserve stores on board ; and neither 
threats nor inducements availed with the crew to disclose them. So Lieut. 
Read set the cutter's crew adrift in one boat, fired the '' Gushing," and in 
his two boats attempted to escape to the Harpswell shore, but was over- 
taken and made prisoner by the "Forest City." At two o'clock the 
magazine of the " Gushing," containing four hundred pounds of powder, 
exploded with a terrible concussion. Her fate being thus determined, the 
expedition returned to the city. On the way the "Archer," with the 
remaining three of the "Tacony's" crew, was captured while she was 
attempting to escape, and taken in tow. The prisoners were placed in close 
confinement at Fort Preble. 

The brilliant achievement of the expedition was honored by the ringing 
of bells and firing of cannon, and the wharves and every available point 
were alive with people on its arrival, who indulged in joyous demonstra- 
tions.^ 



THE FOURTH DESTRUCTION OF PORTLAND, JULY 4, 186G. 



"On the Fourth of July, 18G6, a carelessly-thrown fire-cracker set fire 
to a boat-builder's shop in Gommercial, near the foot of High street, and 
the sparks soon communicated with Brown's sugar-house, wrapping that 
great structure in flames, and speeding onward, spite of all opposition, 
spreading out like a fan as it went, diagonally across the city, glowing 
with a furnace heat, melting iron, crumbling stones, wiping out the costli- 
est 'fire-proof structures, leaving desolation in its track, sweeping away 
not only whole blocks, but entire streets, massive warehouses, lofty 
churches, splendid mansions, ancestral homes in the crowded and oldest 
part of the city, spreading anguish, terror and dismay among the whole 
population, until, at last, in the small hours of the morning, it burnt itself 
out amid the waste spaces at the foot of Mun joy's Hill. That night of 
terror and destruction will never be forgotten by the people of Portland- 
The morning saw fifteen hundred buildings laid in ashes; fifty-eight streets 
and courts reduced to a wilderness of chimneys, amid which the most 
familiar inhabitant lost himself ; ten thousand people made houseless and 
homeless, and ten millions of property destroyed."^ 

1 See the Adjutant-General's Report. - Elwell. 



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5G Historical Sketch of Cushing's Island. 



CONDENSED HISTORY OF THE CITY PROPER. 

Portland was first settled (upon the main land) in 1633, by two adven- 
turesome Englishmen, named George Cleeves and Richard Tucker, who 
had been ejected from a prior attempted settlement upon the Cape shore 
which fell within the patent of Goodyear and Trelawny. It lies upon a 
peninsula at the south-western end of Casco Bay, and was called by the 
natives " Machigonne," The part now included in the city proper was 
called the "Neck," to distinguish it from the other parts of Falmouth, of 
which it formed a corporate part till 17<SG, 

Though in point of population the largest city in Maine, in territory it 
is the smallest municipality in the State. It comprises the neck, a space 
three miles in length by one-half to three quarters of a mile in width, and 
sixteen islands and parts of islands in Casco Bay, of which Cushing's 
Island is one. The population is 37,000. It is the centre of a population of 
50,000, if the suburban villages within sound of its bells be included. 

The neck or peninsula on which Portland is built rises into a hill or 
promontory, both at the eastern and western extremities — the former 
called Mun joy's Hill, the latter, Bramhall's Hill, both named for very 
ancient settlers and occupants. These hills command views of beautiful 
scenery — Munjoy's looking off over the island-dotted waters of Casco 
Bay and the ocean beyond, while Bramhall's commands an extensive view 
of diversified country, cultivated and pastoral, including the peaks of the 
White Mountains, ninety miles distant. With far-seeing liberality the 
city has appropriated for the public, drives encircling the brow of each 
hill, and seats are provided for weary pedestrians. 

Portland has been four times swept by fire and sword : once by the 
Indians, in 167G ; again by the French and Indians, in 1690 ; once more by 
the British under Mowatt, in 1 775, and yet again by the great fire of July 
4th, 1866. It has now wholly recovered from the effects of this last con- 
flagration, having been rebuilt in a greatly improved style of architecture. 

The city has always been a commercial one, having at one time had 
an extensive trade with the West Indies, and still having a large com- 
merce with South America and other foreign countries. It is the winter 
port of two lines of ocean steamships, by which immense quantities of 
provisions are shipped to England. 

Among the principal buildings worthy of notice by visitors is the City 
Government building at the head of Exchange street, one wing of which 



Historical Sketch of Cushing's Island. 57 

contains the court-rooms of the State, Portland being the shire-town of 
Cumberland County. This noble edifice has a frontage of 150 feet, built of 
Nova Scotia Albert stone, and contains 80 rooms, among which are a hand- 
some City Hall, capable of seating 2,500 persons, a Public Library and 
the room of the Maine Historical Society. The building of the Portland 
Society of Natural History, on Elm street, contains an extensive museum, 
lecture-room, and laboratory. The Federal Buildings : the Post-OflBce and 
United States Court-rooms, Middle and Exchange streets, and the Custom- 
House, Commercial street, are both fine specimens of architecture. 

Among the churches are St. Luke's, the Bishop's Cathedral, State street 
(Episcopal), State street Congregational, the First Parish (Unitarian), and 
First Baptist, in Congress street, and the Roman Catholic Cathedral in 
Cumberland street. 

The Observatory, the old tower on the slope of Mun joy's Hill, was built 
in 1807 for the purpose of signalling shipping, and is eighty-two feet higher 
than the hill. Visitors are recommended to ascend it for the increased 
landscape that may be brought into view by the aid of its very powerful 
telescope. 

An efficient line of horse railroads gives ready access to all parts of the 
city and into the suburbs at Deering ; and as the city is now the best lighted 
in the country, by the introduction of electric lights, a visit in the evening 
is rendered much more pleasant than formerly. 



HOW TO REACH PORTLAND. 

If from Canada, Chicago, the great West or Northwest, come by way of 
the Grand Trunk Railway, or the St. Lawrence River, or connect with the 
Portland &; Ogdensburg R. R., and come through the White Mountain 
Notch. 

If from New York, or points further South via that city, take either the 
morning or evening express via Springfield, or the evening express over 
the Shore Line via New London, or one of the steamboat lines via Bris- 
tol, Stonington, Norwich, or Fall River, arriving in Boston in time to 
take your breakfast ; and then take the first 7. 30 a. m. express or the 9 a, m., 
1 p. M. or 7 P. M. train from the Eastern Division Station (Causeway street), 
or the 7.30, 8.30 a. m., or the 1 or 3.30 P. m. train over the Western Division 
(Haymarket square Station) of the Boston & Maine Railroad ; or take the 
8 a. m. or 7 P. M. boat of the Portland Steam-Packet Co., from India 



58 



Historical Sketch of Cushing's Island. 




PORTLAND HEAD LIGHT. 

* ' The rocky ledge runs far into the sea ; 

And on its outer point, some miles away, 
The lighthouse lifts its massive masonrj', 

A pillar of fire by night, of cloud by day." — Longfellow. 



Wharf — the morning boat gives an eight hours' sail by the shifting pano- 
rama of the shore of the Gulf of Maine, from Boston Harbor to Casco Bay, 
including Nahant, Cape Ann, Isles of Shoals, Old Orchard and Cape Eliza- 
beth. The Portland & Rochester R. R. also runs two trains between Bos- 
ton and Portland, by a longer and slower route. There are ten trains and 
two boats daily between these two cities. 

The Maine Central R, R. furnishes communication with all the principal 
cities and towns of the State and Bar Harbor, Mt. Desert, Moosehead Lake : 
and, over its connections, with St. Johns, N. B., Halifax, N. S., and the 
Eastern Provinces. The White Mountains are reached over the Portland 
& Ogdensburg R. R. 



Historical Sketch of Cushing's Island. 



59 



TABLE OF DISTANCES FROM PORTLAND TO POPULAR RESORTS. 



To Prout'g Neck, by way of Stroud- 

water Village 

To same, by way of Vaughan's 

Bridge (old road) 

To same, by way of Cape Elizabeth 

Bridge, over Buzzell's Hill 

To same, by way of Ocean Road, 

around the Cape shore 

To Atlantic House, Scarborough, by 

Vaughan's Bridge 

To Kirkwood Hoiise, Scarborough, 

by same route 

To Ocean House, Bowery Beach, 

Cape Elizabeth 

To Two Lights, Cape Elizabeth 



From City Hall : 

Miles Fur. 



13 



11 



11 



14 



To Portland Head Light, Cape Eliza 

beth 

To Cape Cottage, Cape Elizabeth.... 
To Underwood Spring, Falmouth.. 

To Falmouth Foreside 

To Blackstrap Monument, Falmouth 

To Marine Hospital, Deering . 

To Evergreen Cemetery, Deering... 

To Libby's Corner 1 

To Stroudwater 

To Cumberland Mills 

To Woodford's 

To Morrill's 

To Pride's Bridge 4 

To Allen's Corner 



Miles Fur. 



4 





3 


4 


8 





5 





7 





2 


6 


2 


7 


1 


7 


3 





5 


1 


2 





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4 


6 


4 






By Water — From Franklin Wharf 



Miles Fur. 

To Cushing's Island Landing 2 4 

To White Head Landing, Cushing's 

Island 3 

To House Island 2 

To Peak's Island Landing 2 4 

To Evergreen Landing, Peak's 

Island 3 4 

To Little Diamond Island Lauding 2 2 



Miles Fur. 



To Diamond Cove, Great Diamond 

Island 4 

To Long Island Landing 4 

To Little Chebeague Island Laud- 
ing -^ 

To Jewell's Island 10 

To Harpswell 13 

To Freeport 14 



CARRIAGE-DRIVES AROUND PORTLAND. 

" Go where you will in this country, or over sea, and you will not often 
meet with a greater variety of pleasant, romantic and picturesque carriage- 
drives, than about this greatly undervalued, greatly misunderstood, if not 
greatly misrepresented Portland. 

If you take the easterly sea-shore road, and keep along by the old 
Falmouth coast line, always in full view of Casco Bay, with its numberless 
islands, you will find such pictures at every turn, as are not likely to be 
forgotten by a lover of landscape scenery, associated with marine views ; 
and along this road through Cumberland, running to Freeport, Yarmouth, 
Brunswick and Bath, you may ramble for half a day, or a day, with a 
certainty of being abundantly rewarded— not that there are any moun- 
tains or cataracts, castles or volcanoes to be met with, or anything, indeed, 



00 



Historical Sketch of Cushing^s Island. 




'K'vlCRICAri PHOTO E JG CO NY 



■• Come, couie into the wood, 
Pierce into the bowers 
Of these gentle flowers, 
Which, uot in solitude 
Dwell, but with each other keep society; 
Aud with a simple piety 
Are ready to be woven into garlands for the good."— Edwaed Youl. 

but the calm, tranquil and soothing associations of untroubled country life, 
with the open sea and the blue heavens to lure you along your way. 

Or, if you prefer it, you can take the bridge-road to Cape Elizabeth and 
go ' rioting in foam and spray ' along the rugged cliffs that run from Cape 
Cottage to the first or head-light, and thence to the tw^^ lights, and so on 
to Front's Neck, or Old Orchard Beach, where a swift succession of unfin- 
ished, rough pictures — or sketches — burst upon you at every stopping-place, 
in decided contrast to the scenery along Falmouth Foreside. 

Or, you may launch away toward Sacarappa, Gorham or Deering, or 
Old Falmouth, abounding with huge trees and pleasant water-courses, and 
sunny lakelets, with here and there a primaeval wilderness, which might 
be well mistaken for a park — a nobleman's park, perhaps — like that of the 
Deering Oaks, out of which you emerge, all at once, into the city of 
Portland itself. 



Historical Sketch of Cushing's Island. 



61 



In a word, go which way you will, out of town, or toward the country, 
or the islands, your horses' heads will be sure to lead you into something- 
out of the common way, and well worth seeing, though they may not lead 
you into any outburst of extravagant enthusiasm. Rocks and woods and 
tinkling rivulets, pretty, goodly farms and farm-houses, and a rough land- 
scape, with here and there a magnificent elm, or huge oak, or a cluster of 
birches, sumachs and black-cherry trees, and a great variety of cedars, 
pines, hemlocks, with stone-walls half-buried in roses, overrun with wild 
vines and flanked with golden rods, which Salvator Rosa himself would 
not disdain to deal with, even though he were mustering his banditti, and 
bringing out the masses of rock, as if they were about falling on you. 

But a brief description is hardly worth remembering ; come and judge 
for vourself."^ 




AviETRiCAN Photo cmc. CO. N.v. 



NEAR WHITE HEAD. 

From a Paiuting by H. B. Brown. 

" When ill ten thousand sparkles bright, went flashing up the cloudy spray, 
The snowy flocking gulls less white, within its glittering mists at play; 
And headlong now poured down the flood, and now in silver circles wound, 
Then lakelike spread, all bright and broad, and gently, gently flowed around ; 
Then 'neath the caverned earth descending, then sjaouted up the boiling tide, 
Then stream with stream harmonious blending, swell bubbling up, or smooth subside." 

— Pkof. Milman's Translation of '■'■ Ramayana.'''' 

1 John Neal. 




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II. 

Guide- BeeK, 



When the Summer Solstice draws on apace there comes a season of rest 
and recreation in which weary workers recuperate for labors yet to come : 
the time for the annual exodus from the cities to the sea-shore begins ; 
whole families people afresh the disused summer cottages, that have stood 
silent through the long months of winter and the drearier spring, w4tli 
merry occupants. Now flirtation and bathing, music and dancing, picnics 
and excursions, fishing and yachting claim each its especial votaries. 

Glowing descriptions of all these delights and rapturous messages make 
yet more unendurable the afternoon deserted look of city streets whence 
all the world is gone a-summering. Now the neglected guide-book is 
dragged forth, and regains importance as counsellor, mentor, guide ; it is 
eagerly searched for pastures new and woods afar. But in the multiplicity 
of such counsellors in this day, it is with a certain diffidence that another 
is added to a constantly increasing list — a diffidence that might have been 
overpowering, were it not for the quiet confidence that the genuine merits 
and rare delights of the scenery to which it is designed to introduce the 
reader will amply justify such temerity in rushing into print. 

Cushing's Island lies in 43° 38 N., and 70'^ 12 W. Its length is one mile 
and a quarter, its breadth three-fourths of a mile ; with a shore line of 
five miles. 

THE SHORE OF THE MAIN LAND. 

All of the shore line visible from the Island was included in the two 
ancient settlements of Casco and Westcustogo, which, upon incorporation, 
were named Falmouth and North Yarmouth respectively. The boundary 
line established between these two townships bears away from the Ottawa 
House piazza about east of north, past the end of Lower Clapboard Island, 
and remains to-day the dividing line between the present towns of Fal- 
mouth and Cumberland. The line between Falmouth and Deering, upon 
the shore, is the Presumpscot River, which debouches between Mackey's 



64 Guide Book of Cusliing's Island. 

Island and the U. S. Marine Hospital. The Back Cove lying behind the 
city separates Portland from Deering. The Fore River separates Portland 
from Cape Elizabeth. The boundaries between Cumberland, Yarmouth, 
Freeport, Brunswick and Harpswell lie so far recessed in arms of the bay 
that the exact demarkations are not visible from the Island, and must be 
determined by the aid of a County atlas by those not familiar with the 
coast line. 



NATURAL ATTRACTIONS. 

Nature can here be studied in so many of her varying moods that he 
who cannot on this Island find gratification in admiration of her beautiful 
phases must be one to whom few such joys upon this earth will ever come. 
The almost infinite variety of diversified saunterings that unfold drive off 
encroaching ennui. There is the sea-shore with its wealth of simple riches, 
of delicate and curious shells and variegated aquaria, where — 

" Moveless still the glassy stream ; 
The wave is clear, the beach is bright 

With snowy shells and sparkling stones ; 
The shore surge comes in ripples light, 

In murmurings faint and distant moans " ;i 

the caves and beetling cliffs to be explored, and the musical cadence of the 
unceasing roar of waters to be noted, where — 

" The sea-caves ring, and the wild waves sing";^ 

the dizzy heights of breezy headlands to be climbed, to watch with bated 
breath the whirling and seething billows in persistent but futile attempts 
to engulf the fallen fragments of the cliffs that have succumbed to oft- 
repeated onsets, but yet interpose their huge bulk as ramparts against the 
advancing foe ; the little green glades and fairy-like nooks with which the 
Island is dotted : the picturesque vistas afforded through skilful clearings, 
from some sheltered knoll, of boundless ocean or the looming main. 

Or, watch the occasion of a lovely summer's night, when the moon, quite 
at her full, bathes field, forest and the flood beyond with such a shower of 
light that every object in the foreground stands out in bold relief, 
and the distant Bay shines like a burnished silver shield ; traverse, then, 
the well-learned paths and by-ways under the spreading branches, while 

1 J. E. Drake. -^ Scott. 



66 Guide Book of Cushing^s Island. 

the weird phantasies that grow before your strained senses people each 
shadowy glen and dale with recumbent figures that seem all too animate as 
the soughing of the night-wind moves the whispering tops above you. 
Silence so profound grows awesome, and the listening ear finds glad relief 
in the mysterious flutter of seeming spirit wings that pervades all forest 
growths at night, and the subdued murmur of the softened surges is hailed 
as the known communing of an ever-welcome friend. 



WALKS AND RAMBLES. 

The Island has been made available in all its parts by ten miles of car- 
riage-drives, foot-paths and connecting and intersecting by-ways. The walks 
and rambles in the immediate vicinity of the hotel are the quickest sought, 
as these have been made easy by the exercise of intelligent care in their 
selection through pastures and woods, thus securing nice grades, and then 
by grubbing and gravelling, so improving the natural advantages, that 
parts of these Island roads seem as well cared for as the pet preserves of 
some nobleman's park. 

The shore road, commenced last season, is now being continued around 
the Island, a distance little short of five miles. There can be no full con- 
ception of the panoramic beauty of this walk but by going over it. Seats 
are being placed at points where particularly fine views will tempt the 
traveler to linger. As the bed of this road is being constructed with a layer 
of pulverized shell over pebbles, it will be dry and smooth in the dampest 
weather, the water draining through it immediately, even while it is yet 
raining. 

It is possible, thanks to painstaking and energetic management during 
the winter months in clearing out the decayed trees, lopping off super- 
fluous branches, perfecting and grading the main roadways, opening a 
hundred miniature by-ways, expending laborious care both overhead and 
under foot, now, to extend one's strolls in every direction; and, no longer 
tantalized by glimpses of views to which nearer approach was forbidden by 
rugged branches and impenetrable undergrowth, one can gratify each 
new-born fancy and wander at will. 

The Island justly claims for itself a combination in exquisite harmony 
of more conditions which go to make up a truly enjoyable watering-place 
than can be found elsewhere in a month of wanderings along the coast 
Where else will you flnd such restful and recreative qualities and facilities; 
where, more complete seclusion and isolation from the busy world and its 



Guide ■ Book of Cushing's Island. 



67 



affairs ; where, within such limited confines, more natural beauties and 
attractiveness ; where, more refined qualifications for either social or 
domestic enjoyments ; where, more absorbing historical surroundings fur- 
nishing a stimulus to healthy mental exertion and research, as its soft yet 
invigorating atmosphere, with nothing to contaminate its purity, ever 
tempts to exhilarating bodily exercise ! 




THE ARCHERY AND TENNIS GROUNDS. 

(The Willows and the Cape beyond.) From a Painting by H. B. Brown. 

" But from the breezy deep the blest inhale 
The fragrant murmurs of the western gale." — Pope. 



You may traverse fields of delicate grace and tender pastoral sweetness, 
where the jewel-like mosaic of vivid light green, deep blue green, clear 
masses of emerald and brilliant patches of blossoms impart to the plain a 
vernal richness you would scarce accredit to bleak New England. 

" With wonder seized we view the pleasing ground, 
And walk delighted, and expatiate round. "^ 

You come out, scarce conscious of volition, upon the cliff-bound coast 
where the rocks, by some convulsion of Nature, have been rent sharply 
down to the sea, and present at all points keen angles and edges, eaten 
away at the water line by the everlasting erosion of the waves, but 
insurmountable to all approach ; the rocks protected from assault by 
dangerous reefs, running far out, over which frolic the blue waters. 

' ' And the multitudinous 
Billows murmur at our feet, 
Where earth and ocean meet."'^ 



^ Dryden. 



2 Shelley. 



68 Guide Book of Cushing's Island. 

Or, resuming your walk through the verdant maze of sweet-brier hedges, 
emerging unexpectedly from the environing forest, there bursts upon you, 
in all its sublimity and grandeur, majestic old White Head. 

" Heaven sure has kept this spot of earth uncurst 
To show how all things were created first. "^ 

Breathing a fervent prayer that the genii of the place may preserve it 
ever while the ages run, in its state of primitive wildness, the mind next 
ventures into speculation how the immense pile of stone, rising abruptly 
from fifty feet of warring waters, should have resisted their assaults thus 
long ; for the traces of past conflicts lie thick about you, indicative of forces 
the mind can barel}^ grasp. Imagine the awful energy of waves a mile 
long, twenty rods wide and fifteen to thirty feet deep, hurled by a wind- 
force of over sixty miles an hour, every minute for hours, against the 
seamed sea-face of White Head, as happens in every southeast gale : 

" The rolling billows beat the rugged shore 
As they the earth would shoulder from her seat."^ 

How about a hundred years, or a thousand, of such terrible assault upon 
such a surface I Little wonder that masses have fallen from its face and 
perceptibly shoaled the water at its base. The rock formation is seamed 
and cracked in every conceivable direction into lozenge-shaped blocks, from 
a few inches on a side, up to large masses thirty feet on a side and weigh- 
ing hundreds of tons. 

"WHITE HEAD. 
I. 
Say what amid the stormy waves, 

Its hoary head majestic rears; 
Which yet uninjur'd nobly braves 
The shock of tempests and of years ? 

II. 

Delightful spot! well known, I ween, 

To ev'ry son of pleasure near ; 
Thy lofty rocks who has not seen ? 

Thy lofty rocks who holds not dear ? 

III. 
Have I not seen the painted skiff 

At anchor ride beneath thy brow ? 
While clouds of smoke around thy cliff 
Betray'd the gaiety below. 
' Prior. 2 Spenser. 




SKETCHE8 BY H. B. BKOWN, 

Sliowing the Caves uuder White Head ; the Beach ; Under the WUlows ; Looking towards the City ; T«<, Headlands 

ou the Island. 

" Had I a cave on some wild distant shore, 
Where the winds howl to the waves' dashing roar, 
There would I weep my woes. 
There seek my lost rei^ose, 
Till grief my eyes should close, 
Ne'er to wake more." — Buexs. 



70 Guide Book of Cushing's Island. 

IV. 

There have I heard the tuerry tale, 

There pass'd the sparkhug cup arouud ; 

While rock and forest, hill and dale, 
With notes of merriment resound. 

V. 

And can a soul so dead be found. 

Who ne'er has stray'd thy woods among 

Who took no pleasure in the sound 
Of echoes from the rocks that rung ? 

VI. 

Ah, often from thy lofty steeps. 

With caution creeping from the wood, 

The fox perhaps by moonlight peeps, 
Below upon the rolling flood. 

VII. 

There I've survej^ed the ocean blue. 
There gaz'd upon the green isles near. 

While countless sails would rise to view, 
And countless sails would disapj)ear. 

VIII. 

'Twas silent, save when in his flight 
The crow his frequent clamors gave. 

Save when the hawk from lofty height 
Dash'd headlong in the foaming wave. 

IX. 

And there perhaps full many a pair 
In converse sweet have bent their way ; 

Have talk'd of love and prospects fair. 
Regardless of declining day. 

X. 

Perhaps, too, footsteps of despair, 

This sweet retreat could frequent show, 

Who sought from agonizing care 
A refuge in the wave below. 

XI. 

Delightful spot ! while life is mine 
I'll waader on thy sea-beat shore ; 

From rock to rock still love to climb, 
And still thy shady wood explore."^ 

^ By Nathaniel Deering — from original manuscrii^t. 



Guide Book of Ciishincfs Island. 71 

Quite near the Hotel, say about two hundred yards away, to the right of 
the road to White Head, there must be an immense subterranean cave, for 
the stamping of the feet causes a reverberation of sound, and at certain 
stages of wind and tide one catches the smothered boom of inrushing 
waters and the slap of receding waves, like a heavy long-drawn " ker- 
chunk, with several heavy spanks," repeated again and again, sounding 
miles away and yet close by. This is probably caused by the sea rolling in 
under some shelf for a long distance, without hitting anywhere, and end- 
ing with the resounding spank that re-echoes a long way underneath. 

" In a cavern under is fetter'd the thunder, 
It struggles and howls at fits."^ 

There are several lusus naturae upon the Island that will attract the 
attention of even the idle, and may engross the thoughts of even philo- 
sophic minds. Amongst these are several trees growing apparently directly 
out of rock, with no supporting earth-bed. Near Willow Cove there is a 
sturdy young oak springing out of a willow — a queer instance of parasitic 
growth. In Spring Cove, near White Head, a spring of pure sweet fresh 
water gushes and bubbles up above the overlying salt water, several rods 
off from the beach. This is now inclosed with a curbing, and affords oppor- 
tunity for yachts or vessels to refill their water casks. 

The necessity for good water for the various cottage-sites laid out, 
induced the proprietor to sink artesian wells, with most gratifying success. 
Water has been struck in four localities, in some that were considered very 
unpromising, as on ledges, at remarkably slight depths — in no case over 
thirty-five feet — in most bountiful abundance. The water is absolutely and 
chemically pure ; equal to the best Poland or Underwood Spring, or the 
best to be had anywhere. In fact, it could not be sweeter or more palat- 
able. 

IN SUNSHINE AND IN STORM. 

The Island is a paradise for women and children, and men seeking rest 
and quiet and recreation through contact with all that is most restful and 
serene in nature. Old Ocean offers here all that ever characterizes her 
ministrations for tired humanity ; and whether one whiles away the hours 
in boating, sailing, yachting, bathing or watching the various ocean moods 
from shore or headland, the entertainment offered is always superlative — 
the very best possible under the conditions of the union of land and sea. 

1 Shelley. 



72 



Guide Book of Cushmg's Island. 



When calms prevail, the sea lies like a mirror, reflecting on its bosom 
the sea-fowl on poised wing as they gracefully skim its surface; the nearer 
shores and islets stand out in contrasting hues over a foreground of neutral 
blue; the spires and towers of the distant city, like index fingers, point, all 
converging, as if to show how all roads lead to the loveliest Island in the 
bay: 

" Some island far away 
Where weary man may find 
The bliss for which he sighs. " 

Again, when breezes come ruffling the vasty deep, filling the sails of 
the fishing craft and sedate coasters as they industriously ply their trades, 




YPm/o CJiCo'ja 



LEDGES ON THE OUTER SHOKE. 

(Ram Island Ledge in the distance.) From Paintings by H. B. Brown, 

' ' For now I stand as one upon a rock, 
Environ'd with a wilderness of sea, 
Who marks the waxing tide grow wave by wave ; 
Expecting ever when some envious surge 
Will in his brinish bowels swallow him."— Shakespeaee. 



Guide Book of Cushing's Island. 73 

now and then wafting in or out the stately ship, with snowy sails all set 
and drawing till she walks the waters like a thing of life; then the ripples 
plashing on the shingly shore emit a lullaby irresistibly soothing in the 
silent watches of the night, and equally inviting to drowsiness and dolce 
far niente in the mid-day sultriness. 

Or, when in fiercer mood the water is tempest-tossed, the vaulting- 
billows come rolling in from the great deep with a sullen roar that wakes 
and prolongs the echoes from the encircling cliffs, dash against the 
outlying barriers of our safety, and are splintered into foamy fragments 
that with milky froth bedeck and cozen their too potent adversaries, and 
then retire baffled of their impetuous design, seething and hissing to the 
embrace of the refluent undertow. 

Sometimes in storms, but rarely in the peaceful summer months, a mar- 
vellously grand spectacle is presented by the whole shore-line as far as the 
eye can reach. The waves dash to enormous heights, their crests outlined 
against the inky blackness of the skies by the foam that tips their summits, 
or by segments of spray that are whirled away inland with the velocity of 
the wind, or now and then revealed by fitful flashes of zig-zag lightning ; 
the nearer rocks obliterated by swelling surges that seem as though they 
must be encroaching foot by foot past old remembered limits, and as charge 
succeeds charge, seem about to engulf the land ; while around and above 
all, the winds howling fiercer and fiercer, fairly drown in their shrill trebles 
the minor notes of the dashing waves, and only the deep, hoarse bass 
intrudes a sullen undertone, perceptible by the concussion of the ground as 
much as through the deafened ear. 



SEASON. 

Though our calendared summer embraces but three months, one of the 
best times to enjoy the scenery of the Island is in late September and early 
October, after the murkiness of the summer haze has been dissipated by 
the equinoctial storm, and the line of horizon gains both a clearness of 
demarkation and an extended remoteness of range, when each object of 
interest in the widened circuit stands forth clearer in diversified coloring. 
The month of June is more favorable, however, to the ardent lover of nature 
than the later summer months, because the air is usually clear and balmy. 
From the middle of June to the middle of July the foliage is fresher, the 
cloud scenery more massive, the fields clad in more brilliant verdure, and 
there is then a longer continuance of the afternoon light that kindles the 



74 Guide Book of Cushing's Island. 

landscape into its richest loveliness. These extremities of the holiday 
season will, upon reflection, especially commend themselves to discrim- 
inating pleasure-seekers who can fortunately choose their own time, and 
are the happy possessors of robust physical powers. That they afford the 
most gratifying- enjoyment of the round of seasons is to the full appreci- 
ated by the fortunate cottagers, who begin their residence before the influx 
of the transient guests, and prolong it afterward. 

In August there are fewer clear skies, and undeniably more fog, but, as 
if to compensate, under its prevailing sultriness the forests give off their 
balsamic odors, the iodine of the seaweed is wafted in refreshing fragrance 
by every in-shore breeze, and "when the winds do blow" the salt fluff of 
the sea impregnates the flying scud with exhilarating and invigorating 
aroma. What is ever so grateful as an August sunset breeze to the busy 
townsman grown weary under the pressure of business or study, who has 
lost his ability to eat or sleep, or to take pleasure in either present or 
anticipated comforts in his home surroundings, but who has wisely aban- 
doned his cares for the nonce, and come off to us with a mind properly 
receptive of our ennobling scenery. 

" Spirit that breathest through my lattice ! thou 

That cool'st the twilight of the sultry day ! 
Gratefully flows thy freshness round my brow ; 

Thou hast been out uj^on the deep at play, 
Eiding all day the wild blue waves till now, 

Roughening their crests, and scattering high their spray, 
And swelling the white sail. I welcome thee 
To the scorched laud, thou wanderer of the sea." — Bryant. 



CLIMATE. 

"Si nnmeres anno soles et nuhila toto 
Invenies nitidum saepius esse diem.'' — Ovid. 

Penned as it was of a distant clime, this opinion of old Ovid's applies 
with equal truth to our climate, while, if its application be restricted to 
the summer holiday season, the statement may be double-discounted in 
favor of the bright sunshiny days that are the marked characteristic of 
the Island. When the easterly winds do sweep landward enveloping the 
shores of the Bay inside of us and the flat stretches of country with a 
mantle of summer fog, it often happens that the Island lying well out to 
sea, swept by winds in all directions, is cleared of all vapors and looms 



Guide Book of Ciishings Island. 75 

above the environing mists, and the happy dwellers rejoice in clear skies 
and gentle breezes overhead, while gazing out over walls of cloud- 
enshrouding mists. 

Careful observations by Government officials, continued through a 
dozen years, show the average temperature at the Island to be 66 deg. 
Fahr. for the summer months: with five inches less of rain-fall, and 
many less rainy days, and thirty-two fewer days of easterly winds than 
in Boston. This marked superiority of summer climate has brought our 
Island into great and growing favor as a summer resort. The winds 
from all quarters are tempered and rendered refreshing by the wide 
expanse of ocean around us; the thermometer is singularly steady, and 
sudden changes are rare: the skies are clear; the sea is blue and bright; 
pleasant breezes cool the blood and brace the nerves, and sleep is relaxed 
and soothed by the perpetual plash of a slumberous ocean. 

The effect of these long summer suns upon the ebbing tides is 
especially noted and gratefully enjoyed by the frequenters of the bathing 
beach. Of the three beaches available for the enjoyment of this relaxation 
and most agreeable pastime, the one under the willows is especially 
commended, because on the ebbing tide the waters warmed by their spread 
over the flats of the harbor, and the Back Cove, are usually of a higher 
temperature than the atmosphere. From its sheltered position in a pro- 
tected cove, there is absolutely no undertow; and nothing approaching an 
accident has ever occurred here. 

The height, salubrity and cleanliness of the Island, its freedom from 
bogs and morasses, render it absolutely free from that prevalent curse, 
malaria; and the victims of that malady will ever bless the day that their 
steps tended hitherwards. 



BATHING. 

The facilities for salt-water bathing, as indicated in the last few sen- 
tences, are unsurpassed. Three beaches, with as pure water as the flow 
and reflux of old Ocean can bring to any shore, tempt the most fastidious, 
and at certain stages of the tide the temperature is raised to a higher point 
than elsewhere on our coast, by the ebbing water that has been sun-heated 
in the pools and shallows of the immense reservoirs inland, so that the 
feeble, the invaUd and children can safely Hnger a good half -hour in the 
invigorating brine. The excellent view of the beach by the willows shows, 
also, the improvement of a new and spacious bathing-house, with the added 










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Guide Book of Cushing's Island. 77 

luxury of a sheltered promenade and proscenium floor above it. No spot 
can offer more pleasant aspects, sweeter odors, or more refreshing waters. 
Fanned by sea breezes, inhaling the purest air commingled with perfumes 
of both sea and shore, bathers and swimmers here attain supremest enjoy- 
ment, the very ecstasy of their recreation. 



SHOOTING. 

The shooting hereabouts is, truth to say, indifferent during the early 
summer months; but August is the month for bay-bird shooting. Even, 
if it were legal to kill them here, the woodcock cannot be shot, because 
they have disappeared — gone to their dressing-rooms to don their new 
suits — and the only living thing that it is possible to kill and to eat after 
killing is the shore-bird. Under this head is meant to be included, the 
curlew, the willet, the brown-back, or the robin snipe, the yellow-leg snipe, 
and the solitary sand-piper. Lying on one's back during the whole day 
on a white sand-beach, or among the grass in a salt marsh, cannot truth- 
fully be called exciting sport; but when "the flight is on," there will be an 
hour or two in the morning and evening when a great deal of pleasure can 
be had behind the stools. If the birds come along in any numbers, one 
forgets all about the hot sun and the reflected glare from the waters in 
his anxiety to discover some far-off flock, and, when they have approached, 
to attract their attention to their mimic relatives which stand so quietly on 
the mud or float about the edge of the water within easy gunshot of his 
place of concealment. And when a single black-breast or a wary old jack 
curlew has seen the stools and swings backward and forward just out of 
range, answering the call, and not yet quite satisfied with the appearance 
of things, then there is really a moment or two of excitement. 

Bay-bird shooting, though not comparable to the sport of following the 
dogs over the uplands, has its attractive side, and after the next easterly 
storm, the devotee is advised to rise early and explore the numerous coves 
and beaches towards White Head, returning by way of the outer shore. 
After he has exhausted these home fields, he might row off to Ram Island, 
the Green Islands, and the outer beach of Long Island ; or take the first 
train to the celebrated Scarborough Marshes. Though out of season for 
them, numbers of the surf -duck, or coot, linger late, or precede the south- 
erly migration, and can be shot off Bald Head and the Cape Lights ; they 
also bed and feed in large numbers on Ram Island Ledge and the Green 
Island Ledges. 



78 Guide Book of CusJiing's Island. 



SHORE FISHING. 

" Woaldst thou catch fish ? 
'Iheu here's thy wish," 

And the evening salutation of "What hick ?"' coming aUke from the Kps 
of earnest anglers, rung out in scornful accents by pouting damsels, pertly 
queried by impatient youth, or jocosely l)y phlegmatic old-timers, whose 
well-filled strings occasion inquiry if such returns be due to " luck" alone, 
gives added enjoyment to the display of a heavy load of finny prizes. 

However it may happen that when the same conditions of air and tide have 
been vouchsafed to all, the same bait secured by each, the like stratagems 
adopted, such varied results should follow, of course "luck" has come to 
be the measure of success — 'twere useless to dispute over terms — but with 
the cultivation of that skill and proficiency that doubly insures good luck, 
what other blessings have come to tired faces now lighted with new life, 
to enfeebled frames where health is surely re-asserting itself, to jaded and 
pre-occupied minds imbued with freshened thoughts, the memory of which 
will force dull care still further back through many a weary day. 

In the multitude of fish that swarm these waters, several varieties, in 
the pursuit of their food, venture right up to the rocks and feast upon the 
myriad forms of ocean life torn from its bed by the breaking of the surf. 

" Thus at half ebb a rolling sea 
Keturus and wins upon the shore ; 
The waterj- herd, affrighted at the roar, 
Rest on their fins awhile, and stay, 
'1 hen backward take their woud'riug way.'' 

When one has overcome the first temptation to '* yank'' everything that 
bites, by main force, from the water, for which nothing is suitable except 
the stout but light cedar poles obtainable from the woods, and when one has 
gained sufficient dexterity in casting a straight line beyond where shadows 
from the rocks are projected over the water, then it would be well to 
exchange this primitive gear for a light rod, a flexible line and a reel. Thus 
properly equipped, sport may be enjoyed in capturing and playing the met- 
tlesome cunner, that is but little inferior to the famed trout-fishing 
of our woods, and is vastly less incommoding than any fishing in the 
woods. 

' Dryden. 



Guide Book of Cushing''s Island. 



79 



If you would not gauge the depth at every place you select and adjust a 
cork float thereto, it is better to rely upon the premonitory nibble that pre- 
cedes a solid bite — for the salt-water fish do not take the bait with the whirl 
and dash that characterize the trout — but when by a dexterous turn of the 
wrist you have fairly hooked your game, your prey will often afford you 
quite an exciting quarter of an hour before you get him safely landed. 
His first impulse is to dart off shore for deeper water. This you must resist 
by the utmost tension of your rod and line, giving him the but judiciously. 
The cunner especially is a gamey fish and fights hard for life. The strain 
from the springy rod gradually checks his headlong career, and he turns 
to a diagonal or in-curving circuitous route that permits the recovery of 
part of the spun-out line ; then follows a moment's pause in the conflict, 
which he uses to recover breath and strength for another struggle. When 




WHITE HEAD LANDING. 



" But sith uow safe ye seized the shore, 
And well an-ived are, high God be blest; 
Let us devise of ease aud everlastina; rest. 



-Spexseb. 



80 Guide Book of Cushing's Island. 

this begins, the greatest care must be taken to prevent his overrunning the 
hook in his repeated doublings ; for if you incautiously permit this, the 
chances are he will unhook himself and escape. In his struggles as his 
circles grow less, and he realizes the impending danger, he leaps repeat- 
edly clear from the water in the attempt to free himself from the fatal steel. 
But such exertions sap his waning powers, and skillful hands on the rod 
soon terminate the unequal contest. 

A variation in the way of fishing is afforded by the use of hand-lines 
from a boat moored in one of the coves ; or the fish can be taken by hand- 
lines from the wharf, where a good roof gives shelter alike from rains and 
the too blistering sun. 

Trolling through the surf, after the fashion used for blue-fish, is some- 
times rewarded by the capture of a giant cod, a fighting pollock and 
perchance a blue-fish, but as a rule they do not run so high up the coast. 
This is quite laborious, and skill is required to throw the heavy squid out to 
the proper distance at sea, but there is a peculiar excitement and exhila- 
ration about it as one stands waist-deep in the surf that boils around, and 
feels the tug on the line that tells the fish is hooked — an excitement that 
is heightened as the big fish is drawn shoreward, struggling fiercely in 
the surf, scattering the salt spray in showers along the path of its enforced 
journey, that make this a favorite method of angling with many fishermen. 



DEEP-SEA FISHING— MACKERELING. 

When the mackerel begin their annual migration from the deep waters 
off the Delaware capes, they work up along shore and arrive off the coast 
of Maine about the first of June, and begin to strike inshore, where their 
presence is often first detected in the fish- weirs in the bays and inlets. 

"Each bay 
With fry innumerable swarms, and shoals 
Of fish, that with their fins and shining scales 
Glide under the green waves, in sculls that oft 
Bank the mid sea."^ 

A multitude of small fry accompanies them, or perhaps precedes them, 
since the mackerel preys upon most of them ; the pilot-fish first, then shoals 
of herring, shrimp, squid, menhaden, and the round jelly-fish. Behind the 

1 Milton. 



Guide Book of Cushing's Island. 81 

mackerel come his enemies, the shark, dog-fish, bluefish, the mackerel-gull, 
and last, but perhaps not least in the work of extermination, man with his 
appliances of schooners, seine-boats, nets and hand-lines. A scene of great 
activity is then presented on the surface of our bay, and as far out at sea 
as the eye can reach — hundreds of sails idly flapping in the gentle breeze, 
while the attendant boats are dragging the many -fathomed nets in con- 
verging circles, and endeavoring to entrap in their meshes the schooling- 
mackerel. 

Arrangements can be made with the skippers of the fleet, yacht-like 
craft that frequent the harbor and the surrounding islands, for a day of 
this sport or a more extended cruise, as curiosity to witness this wholesale 
method of taking the fish may determine. But capital sport is afforded 
summer guests by the parties that are frequently organized to take the 
trim little schooner that is kept at the Island, and capture these rapacious 
fish with the hand-line. The ladies better appreciate this more moderate 
piscatorial exercise than the very considerable labor that attaches to the 
hauling in of the heavily weighted cod-lines, often doubled by the finny 
prize. 



COD-FISHING. 

An early morning start brings the party to the banks that lie off under 
the horizon, in season to indulge in the taking of more weighty game — cod, 
haddock, hake and pollock that there abound. But these frequent deeper 
water, from twenty to seventy fathoms, and require a line of that or greater 
length, about a quarter the size of a clothes-line, with a sinker of from five 
to seven pounds weight to overcome the ocean currents. This is dropped 
to the bottom and then hauled up about one fathom, and must be kept 
sawing up and down. The lines cut into the wood of the hand-rail of all 
the hand-line fishing craft by this sawing. Use caution against letting the 
fish when hooked, pull the line through the fingers — a mischance that fre- 
quently brings blood, and leaves at best tell-tale blisters on the novice's 
hands. 

But the delightful certainty of your take when securely hooked, the 
merriment of disputes over the "prize fish," and the palatable delicacy of 
the dishes produced under the manipulations of the skilful chef, amply 
compensate for these petty trials and inconveniences, and this sport finds 
many votaries among our guests, and "fisher talk" soon becomes recog- 
nizable slang in the twilight gatherings upon the broad piazzas. 



H2 Guide Book of Gushing' s Ishuuh 

SWORD-FISHING. 

Perhaps the most exciting as well as the most thoroughly sportsman- 
like entertainment atf orded in these waters is the pursuit of the sword-fish. 
It is a most gamey fish, approximating ten feet in length and sometimes 
exceeding that, often reaching five or six hundred weight, with a large 
dorsal fin running from its shoulders almost back to the tail ; another fin 
on each side, just back of the gills, and a little one on the under-side just 
forward of the tail. This equipment, with its powerful great tail, which 
should be avoided by smaller boats, as it can deal very forcible blows, 
enables it to dart through the water with amazing velocity and gives it 
a power of traction that can drag a boat after it for miles. Its char- 
acteristic feature is a sword formed by the projection of the upper jaw, 
three or four feet beyond the lower one. This seems of a horny rather 
than of a bony composition ; it is about four inches broad next the head, 
tapers down to a blunt point, and is two-edged but not very sharp. What 
use the fish makes of this, except as a defensive weapon, is more a matter 
of fable than of accurate report, and remarkable yarns are spun of its 
attacks upon whales and occasionally upon fishing craft. 

A harpooning outfit is necessary in hunting this game, and most of 
the neighborhood craft have a harpooner's stand or iron hand-rail fixed 
upon the end of the bowsprit, whence an expert handler launches the 
barbed harpoon with deadly effect into the fish that is either slumbering, 
or is usually so intent upon its finny prey that it permits itself to be 
almost overrun by the skimming craft ere it turns aside. Unless the iron 
penetrates at once a vital spot, there ensues a contest, brief, but rendered 
exciting by the mad dashes and expiring struggles of the impaled victim. 

The fiesh of this fish fried to a brown crisp has long been esteemed a 
delicacy by the Islanders, and is becoming a requisite of the markets of 
the city. 

A pair of the swords nicely cleansed and polished make up a decora- 
tive trophy to which the successful fisherman can point with pride as a 
testimonial to his piscatorial prowess. 

PHOSPHORESCENT PHENOMENA. 

The jelly-fish, medusae — call them what you will — and their varied 
kindred and offshoots that infest our seas work a startling transformation 
in the water-scape, when after nightfall the castellated rocks are frequently 
bathed with the splendors of phosphorescent illumination, and the phan- 



84 Guide Boole of Cushing's Island. 

tastic, ghastly light transforms the bosom of the broad dcean into a scene 
of weird revelry. Every drop of water seems a gleam of light, and the 
tawny kelp and depending seaweed drip with liquid fire. The scene as 
the waves beat upon the rocks is one of effulgent splendor, and the spray, 
for a moment, hangs suspended in air, a cloud of luminous mist, and then 
settles down upon these grim guardians of the coast, bathing them in a 
warm lambent light that winds its way in gleaming rivulets to the sea. 

Then does boating over the quiet harbor stretches present a new allure- 
ment ; for every ripple is crested with a molten silver hue, and the plash, 
ing oars, withdrawn from an eddying circle of mysterious light, are coated 
now with white, now with yellow and yet again with aureolan tints, and 
far away behind extends a wake that traces wanderers over the no longer 
•• pathless " flood ; while all around, beneath the surface, faint moons and 
stars gleam up from unfathomed depths, and swift flashes across your 
pathway leave a nebulous train of light behind. 



BOATING AND YACHTING. 

" On either side '. ' 

The ripples on his path divide, ; j 

And the track o'er which his boat must pass 
Is smooth as a sheet of pohshed glass.'' — J. K. Drake. 

You will be tempted ere long to essay the exploration of another king- 
dom, for it somehow ever seems as though you could penetrate further into 
wonderland by water than on land, and the most wonderful and mysterious 
lies ever "on the other side." 

So, soon as you have explored the unsuspected resources of the land, 
and the cliffs, forests and fields have been temporarily exhausted, the 
caverns disclosed their last piratical legends, the dim fens and brakes 
produced their last shadowy monsters, you come at last to the water. 

" Beyond it lies in every myth and fairy tale the climax of your perils, 
the touch-stone of your courage, and to the other side you must cross." 

' ' Larger ships may venture more, 
Little boats must keep near shore." 

Prudent as that advice doubtless is, it is shorn of much of the danger 
imphed, in the inland stretches over the Bay, through the various channels, 
around the diversified islands, west up to the city wharves, east for many 
watery leagues to Harps well, Brunswick, or Freeport, all the way under 



Guide Book of Cushing's Island. 85 

shelter of islands that serve both as breakwaters and to keep off too violent 
breezes, and make of whatever route you select a perfect '* ladies' course," 
safe alike for the fullest spread of all your light canvas on the tiniest yacht, 
and practicable for either lateen or lug rig of canvas, or suitable to the 
oarage of your own strong arms. It is the proud boast of Casco Bay 
yachtsmen that on any day, blow the winds hard as they may, they can 
afford their friends and guests of the fair sex a twenty miles' straight-away 
course, inside shelter all the way, without reefing a sail, shipping a pint of 
water, or causing the least unpleasant sensation to the most sensitive 
nerves. 

From the fleet of small boats ever in waiting at the boat-house you can 
select a craft commodious enough for your party, or of gondola proportions 
for " a pair of spoons," and embarking at any hour of the day or evening 
you will find you are not without company, for the craft increase in num- 
ber, all of them, with rare exceptions, sailing or rowing along in the inter- 
est of recreation or pleasure. Now and then your course is made musical 
with the choruses of distant water-parties ; the plaintive melodies vibrat- 
ing with a strange pathos across the waters that swells the heart of the 
listener, even though he understands nothing of the words. Once or twice 
the tinkling of a guitar, or the thrumming of a banjo, is heard, marking 
time for solo-singers. A long racing-shell sweeps by, or you pass a laden 
fishing-boat, a rowing-boat propelled by a crew of bonnie, wholesome 
girls singing old glees to the measured plash of their oars, or perchance 
some enthusiast, gliding, phantom-like, about in the rapidly vanishing 
canoe. For canoeing, though a somewhat new pastime here in salt water, 
seems about to become pre-eminent among water-sports, because of the 
amount of pleasure it gives in return for the trouble taken. The intricacies of 
hull, the diversity of rigging, the variety of sails that are fast frequenting 
our waters lend a diversified charm to the marine scenery, and give rise to 
the hope that more may come where all have been so charming. 

Portland Harbor and the roadstead just inside the islands is a noted 
rendezvous for yacht squadrons, and the great fleets of the New York and 
Eastern Yacht Clubs straggle in one by one, on their way down the coast 
and again on their return, waiting their consorts, expecting orders, using 
telegraphic facilities, interchanging courtesies with the home craft of the 
Portland Yacht Club. Among these beautiful vessels, as they pass and 
re-pass within rifle range of our Island, an opportunity is afforded to study 
model, build, rig and style ; and it is wonderful how many men of minds 
and yachts of many kinds one sees in a season in our waters. To row 
around among such fleets and look them over as they lie at anchor, all 



"86 Guide Book of Cushing's Island. 

dressed in their best, and seemingly conscious of their graceful outlines, 
as they coquettishly turn, now one, now another beautiful side to the 
swaying of the tide, presents an embarrassment of riches and renders it 
difficult to select a particular one as the queen of beauty. You like the 
bow of one, the stern of another, the rake of yet another's masts, and still 
perhaps before your judgment has consolidated on any one your predilec- 
tions are scattered and new fancies dawn at the swift winging of the dainty 
beauties as they resume their flight. 

From among the various models in the harbor fleet, you can easily 
charter for a day or week such craft as will satisfy the most fastidious, if 
you should disdain the very comfortable and serviceable sailing craft that 
are kept moored between the wharves for the requirements of our Islanders. 
Having selected your water vehicle then comes to you the bliss of cruising 
amidst our islands — their number ever in dispute, yet sufficient to give to 
the thickly-studded bay the look of a bed of Roman mosaic, wherein the 
infinite countless little bits of stone are islands and the cement water. 
Island after island appears emerging from these blue recesses and athwart 
the Bay. Some are but few acres in extent, while others' areas are miles 
square. Now, the dividing channels are so narrow a boat can hardly pass; 
then, they expand in width a mile or more. Beautiful silent harbors are 
entered, with peninsulas jutting into them, while behind is labyrinthine 
maze of further islets and still more torturous passages. It is an endless 
archipelago all green and smiling, with these intricate islands stretching 
out in every direction and seeming to block the way. 



THE HOTEL. 

In the multiplicity and complexity of wants that have been developed 
in the transition of the frequenters of this Island from their state of primi- 
tive simplicity and moderate desires to the present era of transcendent 
activity and progress, none is more marked than their demand for first- 
class hotel accommodation. So far, now, from being satisfied, as were 
our aboriginal visitors in the good old times of Captain Levett, with raw 
meats, untanned skins and leaky huts, the summer sojourner of to-day 
has come to desire sirloin rare, innumerable paraphernalia with corres- 
ponding space to stow them, a well-appointed hotel, with its concomitants 
of good cuisine, well trained and cheerful service, and luxurious appoint- 
ments. 

It was to meet this growing want that the Ottawa House was built. 



tr CD, 



E ^. 






W ' 



E ^ 



S c:- 



— f^ 




88 Guide Book of Cushing's Island. 

There was certainly a peculiar felicity in placing this charming hostelry 
where it is. Dominating as it does the whole Island, commanding from its 
elevated site a wide circuit of most beautiful and gladdening scenery 
wherein the works of man do but embellish and set out in plainer contrast 
the unprofaned virginity of nature, it became, through many seasons, a 
delightful summer-home. So well appreciated and patronized did it become 
under the successful management of Mr. Montgomery S. Gibson, who has 
attained a country-wide reputation as "mine host" of the Preble House, 
Portland, that it became necessary to double its former capacity, which 
was accomplished in time for the past season. 

" Nothing succeeds like success," and the patronage of last season justi- 
fies the prediction that, in the near future, another wing must be added, or 
the entire structure taken down and re-built. 

The house is perfect in its appointments, and offers the completest com- 
fort, and even the luxury of a delightful home. Everything is made to 
conduce to the happiness of its guests, and yet so far as possible to har- 
monize with its peaceful surroundings. No undue noises ; no too early 
hours, none of the distressful clangor of matutinal gongs, or imperious 
poundings for daybreak travelers, but always, and of an evening espe- 
cially, an inviting quiet reigns that shows how 

" Sweet ai'e the hours in peaceful slumber spent." 

The air of genial hospitality is noticeable the moment you ascend the 
porch, and, till the day you leave, a pervading but unobtrusive care con- 
vinces you that they have here the art of giving to a hotel the most home- 
like feeling possible. The house, under Mr. Gibson's management, is some- 
thing more than a mere place of shelter; one feels that at the head of the 
establishment is a constant and careful watcher for the comfort of every 
guest; and one resigns himself to a promising fate with a happy conscious- 
ness that he has fallen into good hands. This cordiality is felt by the 
entire force and characterizes the face of each willing attendant — and 
whether it be training or if it be art, it conduces alike to your daily enjoy- 
ment and freedom from care, where all is spontaneously done for your 
welfare. 

The cuisine is of the very best ; the table service is unexceptionable ; the 
rooms, most newly furnished, are sweet and fresh — all but four or five 
face upon the surrounding waters — and when the nights are cool, your 
fire upon your hearth welcomes you to your chamber, and you fall asleep 
watching the gentle flames nestle down among the low-singing embers. 

The grand parlor, occuping the whole of the ground floor of the western 



Guide Book of Cushing's Island. 89 

■extension, is a spacious and noble apartment; so admirably proportioned is 
it that at tirst you fail to notice its extraordinary height, a wise foresight 
that always insures coolness, to which the ingenious arrangement of its 
ventilation contributes. It is not until some general gathering like Sun- 
day morning service assembles all the guests therein that you fairly realize 
its full capacity. 

By a like extension of the eastern wing a beautiful dining-room is 
secured, 

" a stately hall, 
Wherein were many tables fair dispred, 
And ready dight with drapets feastival, 
Against the viands should be ministered."^ 

Here at the stated hours reign decorous feastings, under the sedulous 
attention of a polished head- waiter, whose choicest invocation is, "May 
good digestion wait on appetite and health on both.'" Here is the lavish 
hand of our genial host, Gibson, most gratefully apparent, for, under his 
-direction, 

" AU the tributes land and sea affords, 

Heaped in great chargers, load our sumptuous boards."^ 

In the detached building, reached by a covered way to either story, are 
the billiard-rooms, the bowling-alleys and, above, the commodious dancing- 
hall, concert-room or theatre ; to one or another of which diversions it is 
devoted nightly through the entire season, for there is abundance of his- 
trionic as well as terpsichorean ability developed by both sexes and kindly 
devoted to the general entertainment. 

It is a signal advantage to the elderly, the irritable, the weak-nerved 
invalid, or the studiously inclined, to have these inseparably noisy amuse- 
ments conducted a dozen rods away ; and this class will appreciate to the 
full the Sabbath-like peace that pervades the minor reception and reading- 
rooms. 

Mr. Gibson keeps five or six horses on the Island; and seats may always 
be secured to and from the steamers; to White Head; to the eastern end, or 
any other point of interest. 

The Island can be reached half-hourly by the swift and staunch 
steamers of the Star Line from the Franklin wharf, Portland. It is with 
a feeling of regret that you see them turn their prows aside from the 
inviting vistas caught in transitory glimpses betwixt the verdant isles — a 
regret soon dissipated as you see rising before your enraptured vision a 
very gem of an island in emerald setting and realize it is your destination. 

1 Spenser. 2 Shakespeare. ^ Sir J. Denham. 



90 



Guide Book of Cushing's Island. 




WHITE HEAD liOAD, 

" The woods with living airs how softly fanned, 
Light airs from where the deep, all down the sand. 
Is breathing in his sleep, heard by the laud." — Tennyson. 



SOCIAL LIFE. 

As you draw near the Ottawa Landing you see an expectant throng- 
with eager faces and welcoming smiles turned seaward — a happy augury 
of the social life before you. The merry, merry maiden and her 'ma. the 
everlasting student with his "pa — pater-familias, his wrinkles for the nonce 
smoothed out by the freshening sea-air. care banished, and seeming only 
an elder-brother sort of a fellow — many a matron who but revisits the 
scene of her former conquests for a maturer but perhaps quite as senti- 
mental harvest ; the glad shouts of welcome, the irrepressible but melodi- 
ous yodel, peals of glad laughter, the seemingly exaggerated manifestations 
of affection, of grief over partings, of hilarioas hand-shaking and embraces, 
that would be travesties did we forget that "all the world's a stage, and 
all the men and women merely players " : — these all serve to impress you 
favorably with the friendliness and geniality of the dramatis persona'e, an 
impression that is heightened and intensified as you drive for the first 



Guide Book of Cushing's Island. 91 

time up to the hospitable door, and find yourself upon the crowning feat- 
ure, and generally most crowded part, the spacious breezy piazza, peopled 
with trim-figured, graceful girls, of every shade from blonde to brunette, 
and only a prevalent sun-kissed tint in common, who betray by the very 
skip and tapping of their dainty slippers their eager anticipation of the 
ball at night, and foreshadow a heartiness and enjoyment for the "Ger- 
man," quite refreshing to witness in this blase generation. 

Mingled together in the bonds of a first-born and enthusiastic admira- 
tion for one another's unsuspected attractions, go arm-in-arm the more 
reserved North Country cousin, schooled by precept and example and 
firmly resolved against any approach to Daisy Millerism, and the warmer 
mannered girl of genuine American rearing, rather free than fast, just 
a bit more enchanting for her native forwardness, but never vulgar, 
whatever her detractors may allege — till, from association, they borrow 
and unwittingly assimilate the winning ways, the perversities and ador- 
able foibles, the sweetness, demureness and cleverness of the others' ori- 
ginals, and become so irresistibly fascinating that their influence over 
their male companions is delicately and beautifully apparent as the days 
slip by, but is not to be described nor held up obtrusively. 

Your further opportunities for generalization of the social life here, 
before you essay becoming an integral factor therein, convinces you of a 
fact or two that are reassuring and dispel any mauvaise hoiite. Among 
the guests there is prevalent a certain friendly cheeriness; they all seem 
to know each other, and they have the manner of people who have taken 
possession for the summer, and are situated to their satisfaction — a feeling 
so contagious that it soon agreeably infects you too. 

The dressing, during the days, is simple and entirely appropriate to the 
place and its requirements. At the stated balls costly toilets are displayed; 
but, as a general rule, the requirements for evening life have not as yet 
run to such lavish expenditure as to place them beyond the means of 
many who are obliged to count the cost of their pleasures; and so strongly 
is the spirit of conservatism intrenched here among the families that have 
frequented the place year after year, that the luxuries and little refine- 
ments of polite life on the Island will not. probably, ever exceed reasonably 
economical principles, or approach a stage of merely ostentatious parade. 

There lingers yet about these social entertainments a halo of courtliness 
that seems reflected from the parting light of bygone days. No crushes ; 
no rushes ; no mere mob in good clothes, but a comparatively limited social 
circle who know all about each other ; where culture and character vie in 
the courtesies and small decorums of a truly aesthetic social life. 







Mm^?^"^ 













TVJ'fis-KisiiR. ef "pil^J^TSR.^TT-^'a* \^'«^\ 



leave the noisy town ! O come and see 

Our country cotP, and live content with me."— Ieyden. 



Ill 

PReSPECTUS, 



' ' Oh ! give me a home by the sea, 

Where the wild waves are crested with foam." 

The frankly avowed purpose of this part of this little book is to set 
before you the opportunity that now offers to acquire a comparatively 
inexpensive summer-home on the sea-coast, so situated that it can be kept 
forever free from the nuisances and annoyances that so frequently result 
from the uncontrolable acts of neighboring owners and others. 

Nature having made this the most beautiful island on the coast, much 
money has already been expended by the owners in beautifying it and 
making permanent improvements, as is evidenced by the preserved tim- 
ber, cultivated fields, fine drives and walks, the bathing-house, pavilion, 
band-stand, wharf -house and other structures for common use and enjoy- 
ment; and by individuals, as shown in the tasteful cottages erected by 
them. 

With wise foresight, a survey has been made and mapped by the best 
talent in the country, locating drives and walks, public grounds and 
reservations, and making such a sub-division of a portion of the Island 
into building sites, with regard to a general and comprehensive plan for 
the improvement and development of the whole, that the natural attrac- 
tions have been thereby preserved in their fullest enjoyment for those 
who shall make it their summer-home. By the plan of survey and plotting, 
submitted by Mr. Frederick Law Olmsted, in his report, from which 
extracts will be taken, one hundred and thirty-three acres are laid out 
into forty numbered plots ranging in area from two-thirds of an acre to 
above eleven acres. Something over fifteen acres has been sold ; and the 
balance is offered for sale for cottage sites. Some of the largest of these 
plots will be further divided, if found necessary to accommodate pur- 
chasers ; but, as a general rule, it is thought best to adhere strictly to 
the recommendations of this celebrated landscape architect— and not make 



94 Prospectus of Cushing's Island. 

possible a too-crowded location of cottages, by infringing the lot lines 
established by him. 

The deeds given are with full warranty and covenants, and convey the 
estate in fee-simple absolute, together with rights to use in common with 
others, all drives, walks, public parks and reservations, bathing-beaches, 
wharves, landings, littoral, and future improvements in the development 
of the Island, in as full and free a manner as have been, or may be granted 
to the most favored cottage sites. 

Mr. Olmsted, in giving his judgment on the fitness of the Island as a 
place of summer residence, writes : "I found that maps, drawings and 
written accounts of the Island had not impressed the more attractive 
qualities of its scenery upon me, in several particulars. It is in parts 
much wilder and more rugged than I had been led to suppose, and has 
much more beauty of a delicate character, dependent on its minor vegeta- 
tion, and the form, texture and color of its rocks. I will mention two 
incidents of its scenery which I found particularly enjoyable, and to which 
I had seen no reference: One is the rare picturesqueness of certain groups 
of vertically splintered rocks close off the south shore, against and among 
which the full swell of the ocean was surging at the time of my visit, with 
a charm of motion and beauty of color quite indescribal)le ; the other, the 
lovely tints, due, I presume, to lichens and mosses in crannies and on the 
face of the beetling crags of White Head." 

Mr. Olmsted recommends that the Island shall not be made " a place 
for a neighborhood of smart and fine suburban residences, such as many 
prefer to pass their summer in. Streets suitable to such an occupancy of 
it would be difficult of construction, costly, and a blemish upon its natural 
scenery. Villas and cottages of the class in question would appear out of 
place, tawdry and vulgar upon it. Lawns and gardens appropriate to 
them are in large parts of the Island out of the question. Notions of 
improving the Island based on what has been generally attempted at 
many public-favored places of summer resort should, therefore, be wholly 
abandoned. 

"But to persons who wish to take as complete a vacation from urban 
conditions of life as is practicable, without being obliged to dispense with 
good markets, shops and tlie occasional ready use of city conveniences ; 
who have a taste for wildness of nature, and who value favorable condi- 
tions for sea-bathing, boating and fishing, the Island offers attractions 
such as can be found, I believe, nowhere else on the Atlantic sea-board. 
To all such, I recommend it unreservedly. The only danger of reasonable 
disappointment to such persons lies in the chance that others of incom- 



Prosj^ecfus of Cushrtig's LsIaiicJ. 



05 







.A>A^ (d/r/i7 J/rn"^j . 



patible tastes and ambitions will aim to make ' improvements ' of various 
sorts, and attempt a style of life incongruous with the natural circum- 
stances and repugnant to tastes that the Island is otherwise adapted to 
gratify. If the Island could in effect be owned by a club of families of 
congenial tastes, united only for the purpose of preserving and developing 
its characteristic advantages, and of providing convenience of habitation 
in a manner harmonious each with all and all with nature, it would, under 
judicious management, soon acquire a value to each member such as could 
be attained in a summer residence nowhere else nearly as economically. 

''It is with a view to a disposition of it essentially of this character, 
that I shall suggest measures for its fittings and improvement. 

"■ From what has been said it will be obvious that the value of a summer 
residence upon Cushing's Island rather than in a thousand other localities 
along the coast, depends on scenery much of which can only be enjoyed 
either from points of view inaccessible to carriages, and near which it will 
always be undesirable in the interests of those who will take the greatest 
pleasure in it, that carriages should be brought, or from elevated places in 



96 Prospectus of Cushing's Island. 

the interior. It is of the first importance to secure the free common use of 
these points of observation of both classes and to prevent their outlook 
being either obstructed or put out of countenance by structures for private 
convenience. To this end, certain elevated interior localities and a strip of 
land bordering the entire coast should be made a constituent part of the 
propert}- attached to each summer residence; these adjuncts being held in 
common. Certain other grounds should be disposed of for private use 
only in such large areas that houses to be built upon them will be scat- 
tered, leaving large spaces unencumbered by artificial objects. In the 
sketch plan herewith presented, about a hundred acres are proposed to be 
held as common property, this including all the outer parts of the Island, 
its cliffs, crags, shingles and beaches, and sufficient space of the adjoining- 
upland to allow continuous foot-paths following the shore. At the more 
interesting points this upper space is enlarged. At each point of the 
Island, giving upon the ocean and the harbor's mouths, considerable spaces 
are reserved, and these are connected by a narrow common along the cen- 
tral heights which will command views, both ways. 

" Roads are projected with a view to a subdivision of the property and 
to a convenient connection between the interior building sites and the 
different parts of the shore. One main road, leading through the middle 
of the Island, from the Ottawa Landing of the Portland steamboats, is 
proposed to be seventy feet wide, so as to admit of its being planted with 
trees. Other roads are generally forty feet wide; and a few by-paths for 
short-cuts between difi'erent points of interest are proposed. 

"Residence sites in that part of the Island where houses will be over- 
looked from the heights, and where neither rocks nor declivities will make 
difficulties in building, are generally from half an acre to an acre in area; 
elsewhere, they vary, according to circumstances, from two to seren acres. 

"With a view to unity, harmony and congruity of general effect, it is 
advised that no house be placed within thirty feet of the road-line on the 
smaller lots, nor within sixty feet on lots of over an acre in extent; that 
no house shall be more than two stories in height, or thirty feet to the 
top of the roof ; or furnished in its upper or more exposed and conspicuous 
parts with jig-saw or other extrinsic and puerile ornaments. 

"All the northern part of the Island is at present comparatively bare, 
but there is evidence enough in the existing foliage that trees, shrubs and 
perennial plants may be easily and satisfactorily grown. It is very desir- 
able for the value of the property, as a whole, that trees should be planted, 
and that the narrow roads should be lined with low hedges in thickets. 
To the same general end, provision should at once be made for a gradual 



Prospectus of Gushing^ s Island. 



97 




" Here in the sultriest season let him rest, 

Fresh is the green beneath these aged trees ; 
Here winds of gentlest wing will fan his breast, 
From heaven itself he may inhale the breeze." 

replacement of the present spruce and fir-woods of the higher parts of the 
Island. Such a removal and improvement of the old natural growth, if 
not delayed, can be secured at slight expense. A few years hence it is 
likely to be practicable only by an outlay many times as large. The 
present natural beauty of the Island may, simply by the sowing of seeds 
at trifling cost, be greatly increased." 

Following this suggestion of Mr. Olmsted, the manager of the Island 
has arranged for a thousand hardy young trees, the coming spring. 

Mr. Olmsted further recommends ' ' The building of stone houses and 
fences, the free use of the present farm- walls and all loose stone and the 
quarry from which building stone for use on the Island may be taken 
without charge. The stone of the Island may apparently be very cheaply 
quarried, and if the outside of all its buildings shall present to view only 
the local stone, or shingles without paint or ginger-bread work, or shall be 



98 Prospectus of Cushing''s Island. 

draped with the foliage of vines natural to the locality, the general result 
will be most effective. 

' ' The topography of the Island is favorable to drainage, and as far as 
can be judged, there will be ready and moderately direct descent from all 
the lots shown on the accompanying plan to the sea." 

It remains but to add that the Island abounds in the freshest and purest 
of water. Four artesian wells have been sunk, and absolutely chemically 
pure water obtained in every instance. This insures that desideratum to 
every building site upon the Island, at trifling expense. 

The following extract, taken from a well-known paper, which has 
appeared since this book was given into the hands of the printer, will show 
what has been accomplished on the Island towards ensuring a practically 
unlimited supply of pure water : 

Two great essentials to the health of a community are pure air and pure 
water, the importance of one being no less than that of the other. To obtain 
an abundance of water, above the very suspicion of contamination, no 
better plan than the artesian or drilled well has been devised, and more 
and more of them are driven in this vicinity, with every succeeding season, 
the results being uniformly satisfactory. As an illustration of the advan- 
tages of this class of wells, that recently drilled by Mr. W. F. Trask near 
the Ottawa Hotel, Cushing's Island, one of several he is sinking upon the 
Island, may be taken. This well is 150 feet deep ; goes through, or has, six 
fissures or veins, and flows over 5,000 gallons per day. A sample of water 
from one of these wells (Cushing's Island) was subjected to analysis on 
the 8th day of last February, by W. L. Goodwin, D. Sc. (Edinburgh), Pro- 
fessor of Chemistry, Queen's University, Kingston, Can. He pronounces 
the water perfectly pure, more absolutely so than that of any other wells 
he had analysed. The analysis is as follows : 

Chlorine, per gallon, . . . .0.5 

Free Ammonia, part per million, . . . 0. 1 

Albuminoid. . . . . . .0.0 

Solids, ....... 9.9 

The solids consist for the most part of calcic carbonate. The water is 
absolutely uncontaminated by animal or vegetable matter, Prof. Goodwin 
says, and fitted for drinking. — Portland Transcript, March 17, 1886. 

For full information respecting cottage sites, lots, price and terms, 
address, 

MR. FRANCIS GUSHING, 

Portland, Maine. 



Prospectus of Cushing's Island. 



99 




" To some calm and bloomiug cove, 
Where for me and those I love, 
May a windless bower he built, 
Far from passion, pain and guilt. 
In a dell mid lawny hiUs, 
Which the wild sea-murmur fills, 
And soft sunshine, and the sound 
Of old forests echoing round." — Shelley. 



CONCLUSION. 



The prominent features and salient points of the Island have now been 
discussed at some length. Its past has been honorable ; may its future be 
glorious ! 

Starting so fairly upon its career as a summer resort, with so many 
natural advantages to recommend it, the Island has already become an 
assured success. It needs but the continuance of such properly-directed 
care and management to become one of the foremost of our watering- 
places ; and, with the prosperity already accruing, that seems but the 
question of a few more such seasons. Its chances for attracting foreign 
elements to its summer life are the very best ; for, "does not every one at 
some time visit Maine " ; and when, in its neighborhood, visitors both see 
and hear enough of the place to make them desire to see more. 

Again, one of its versatile charms is its ever-present haunting of the 
memory ; and all who have lovingly pressed her shores live in the hope to 
renew and revisit such scenes. If they loved Nature, they carried away 
such stores of mental pictures of clear waters, overhanging rocks, ever- 



100 Prospectus of Cushing's Island. 

green forests, swelling tides and azure skies, that gain in softened loveli- 
ness as they grow fainter and more remote down the dim avenues of Time. 
(3r, if they love society, they will recall, with many a mimic utterance, 
the gay, care-free groups that lingered under the trees, peopled the pretty 
cottages, overflowing promenades and piazzas, invading and enlivening 
every recess, a picturesque, fun and sun loving community. 

Such thoughts, such memories, such days, such bliss will surely lure 
you back again, though bonds of steel should miss. 

"You may not know bow sweet its balmy aix', 

How brigbt aud fair its flowers ; 
You may not hear the songs that echo there 

Through those enchanted bowers. 

But sometimes, when adown the western sky '. 

A fiery sunset lingers, 
Its golden gates swing inward noiselessly. 

Unlocked by unseen fingers. 

Aud while they stand a moment half ajar. 

Gleams from the inner glory 
Stream brightly through the azure vault afar 

Aud half reveal the story." 





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